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The Progressive Movement 



4 ;. : C/Tft 































The Progressive Movement 


Its Principles and Its 
Programme 

BY 

S. J. DUNCAN-CLARK 

With an Introduction 

BY 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



BOSTON 

SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 


PUBLISHERS 






o 




% 

<v 


c 




Copyright, 1913 

By Small, Maynard & Company 
(Incorporated) 


©CI.A857564 




CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt xi 

CHAPTER 

I Progressive Fundamentals. A 
Crisis in Economic Evolution— 

The Industrial Revolution—An 
Agricultural Transformation— 

Extremes of Wealth and Poverty 
—Precarious Position of the Mid¬ 
dle-Class—Maladjustment and 
Readjustment—P rogressive 
Party a Mass Movement—The 
Programme Summarized . . 1 

II A Progressive Philosophy. The 
Nation a Social Organism— 
Evidences of Maladjustment of 
Functions—The Problem of De¬ 
mocracy—The Relation of Capi¬ 
talist Industry to Government— 

Ills Arising from This Relation¬ 
ship—The Demand for Recogni¬ 
tion of Mutual Responsibility— 
Progressive Programme Specific 
—The People Must Rule—Co- 


v 


CHAPTER 1 A(tL 

operation the New Force in Bus¬ 
iness—A National Policy Needed 
—A National Party Born to In¬ 
augurate It—Keynote Struck by 
Beveridge.17 

III Restoring Power to the 
People. Popular Rule Essential 
to Peaceful Progress—People 
Have Been Deprived of Their 
Sovereignty—Plutocracy is Bi- 
Partisan—The Need for a New 
Part y—Direct Representation 
and Direct Legislation—Misrep- 
resentative Government—Condi¬ 
tions Justify Larger Power for 
the People—The Rise of the Pro¬ 
fessional Politician—The Popular 
Awakening..38 

IY Direct Representation. Direct 
Representation D e fi n e d—The 
Convention System and the Di¬ 
rect Primary—Various Forms of 
Primary—Essentials to Make it 
Effective—Preferential Primary 
Voting in Wisconsin—The Presi¬ 
dential Preference Primary—The 
Oregon Law—Direct Election of 
United States’ Senators—The 


vi 



CHAPTER 


PAGE 


Recall Described — Instances of 
Its Use—The Short Ballot . . 53 

V Direct Legislation. The Initia¬ 
tive and Referendum—Early Re¬ 
cognition of the Referendum 
Principle—Direct Legislation in 
Switzerland—History of Its De¬ 
velopment in the United States 
—The Experience of Oregon— 
Jokers to be Avoided in Direct 
Legislation—O bj ections An¬ 
swered .70 

VI Woman and the Progressive 

Movement. Progressive Wel¬ 
come Political Comradeship of 
Women—Underlying Cause for 
this Attitude—Change in Man’s 
Social Viewpoint—The Nation 
as a Shop and as a Home—Our 
Homes are in Peril—Woman’s 
Interest in Progressive Party 
Broader than Suffrage—The Eco¬ 
nomic Status of Worn©n—Wom¬ 
an’s Place in the Home — 
Woman’s Service in the Progres¬ 
sive Movement.90 

VII The Conservation qf Human 
Resources. Distinctive Feature 

YU 



CHAPTER 


PAGE 


of the Progressive Programme— 

The Awakening to the Need for 
Conservation Generally—Human 
Conservation Define d—Condi¬ 
tions that Cause a Human De¬ 
ficit—Efficiency the Economic 
Phase—Society Bears Cost of 
Human Waste—Class Discon¬ 
tent—Narrowing of Home Mar¬ 
ket—The Unregulated Trust an 
Anti-Social Attempt at Remedy 
—The Social Phase of Conserva¬ 
tion—Man, Woman, Child the 
Essential Factors—How Po¬ 
verty, Degeneracy, Vice and 
Crime are Bred—The Necessary 

Readjustment.109 

VIII Social Wrongs and Remedies: 

Tile Problem of Wages. Hitch¬ 
ing Stars to Wagons—Wages, 
What They Are—Tool Owners 
and Tool Users—Tendency of 
Wages to Seek Subsistence Level 
—Influences that Counteract this 
Tendency—Why Women are 
Paid Lears than Men—Relation 
of Wages to Vice—What is a 
Living Wage?—Progressive Re¬ 
in e d i e s—-Publicity—Minimum 
viii 


CHAPTER 


PAGE 


Wage Standards—Objections to 
Minimum Wage Answered—The 
Tariff and Wages—The Ultimate 
Goal.128 

IX Social Wrongs and Remedies: 
Child Labor. Number of Chil¬ 
dren Employed in Gainful Occu¬ 
pations—Singular Persistence of 
Long Recognized Evil—Harmful 
Results, Social and Individual— 
Effect on Development of Child 
—Stunting Mind and Soul—The 
Cost to Society—Draining Fu¬ 
ture Motherhood—E c o n o m i c 
Folly of System—Causes of 
Child Labor—Schools Share in 
Blame—Problem One of Na¬ 
tional Scope—Remedies Pro¬ 
posed .151 

X Social Wrongs and Remedies: 
Industrial Ills and Hazard. 
Overwork D e fi n e d—Causes of 
Overwork — Speeding up—Eco¬ 
nomic Waste from Fatigue—In¬ 
creased Peril of Accidents—Ef¬ 
fect on Working Class Intelli¬ 
gence—Remedies—Hazards o f 
Industry — Industrial Accidents 
ix 




CHAPTER 


PAGE 


—Sickness—Involuntary Unem¬ 
ployment—Remedies — Publicity 
—Workmen’s Compensation— 

Industrial Insurance — Depend¬ 
ent Old Age and Old Age Pen¬ 
sions .168 

XI Conserving Rural Life. Indus¬ 
trial Revolution on the Farm— 
Changed Conditions of Agricul¬ 
tural Life—Continued Tendency 
to Urban Concentration—In¬ 
crease in Tenant Farmers—Work 
of Country Life Commission— 
Home Life the Strategic Point— 
Betterment of Social Opportu¬ 
nity — Facilitating Agricultural 
Credit—Promoting Agricultural 
Co-operation—Domestic Science, 
Manual Training and Scientific 
Agriculture Needed in Schools . 188 

XII The “Trusts” and “Big Bus¬ 
iness.” Programmes of Republi¬ 
cans and Democrats—The Pro¬ 
gressives Develope a Social View 
of Business—Business Not to be 
Attacked Because of Its Size— 
Must be Taught to Recognize Its 
Social Obligation — Distinction 
x 


Chapter 


page 


between Incidental Evils and In¬ 
herent Nature of Modern Busi¬ 
ness—What Back to Competition 
Means—Conserve, Develop, Re¬ 
adjust, the Progressive Plan—An 
Industrial Commission — Class 
Consciousness and Social Con¬ 
sciousness — Publicity, Supervi¬ 
sion and Regulation the Remedies 
for Incidental Ills—Enlightened 
Self-Interest another Name for 
Intelligent Altruism .... 207 

XIII The Courts. Restriction on Ju¬ 

dicial Absolutism—The Right of 
the People to Interpret th^ir Con¬ 
stitution — Popular Referendum 
on Decisions Involving Police 
Power of the State—Right of 
Appeal to Supreme Court . . 223 

XIV Some National Issues. The 

Tariff — Currency— Commercial 
Development—Conservation—In¬ 
heritance and Income Taxes— 
Peace and National Defense — 
Immigration.240 

XV The Progressive Party in the 
State. Opportunity for Service 
—Programmes of Legislation 
xi 



CHAPTER 


PAGE 


Adopted — Plan Followed in 
Pennsylvania — Constitutional 
Difficulties.258 

XVI The Progressive Party in the 
City. Relation to Municipal 
Government — Elimination of 
Partisan Politics from City Af¬ 
fairs—Fusion Movements—The 
Short Ballot—Commission Plan 
— Public Utilities — Municipal 
O wnershi p—Socializing City 
Government.271 

XVII The Enlistment of New 
Forces. Science Called to Aid of 
Government—Value of Sociology 
Recognized—Women are Given 
Share in Responsibility—Renais¬ 
sance of Moral Sense in Politics— 
Religious Appeal of New Move¬ 
ment .287 

XVIII Progressive Organization. 

Party Organization in Nation and 
State—Auxiliary Organizations 
— Progressive Clubs — Progres¬ 
sive Service Leagues — Educa¬ 
tional Propaganda .... 802 



INTRODUCTION 


I earnestly wish that this book could be read by 
all Progressives. The Progressive Party in this 
country embodies the Progressive movement, the 
movement which concerns itself with the rights 
of all men and women, and especially with the 
welfare of all who toil. The Progressive Move¬ 
ment is greater than the Progressive Party; yet 
the Progressive Party is at present the only in¬ 
strument through which that movement can be 
advanced. Our effort is to make this country 
economically as well as politically a genuine de¬ 
mocracy. The leaders of both the old parties at 
times pay lip service to the principles and the 
purposes of our party; but it is only lip service. 
Our purposes are the purposes of Thomas Jeff¬ 
erson when he founded the Democratic Party; 
although the lapse of a century has shown that 
the extreme individualism and the minimized 
government control which in that day served to 
achieve his purposes are in our day no longer 
serviceable. Both our purposes and our prin¬ 
ciples are those of Abraham Lincoln and of the 
Republicans of his day. All we have done has 
been to apply these principles in actual fact to 
the living problems of today; instead of praising 


xm 


INTRODUCTION 


them as applied to the dead problems of half a 
century back, and repudiating them with ab¬ 
horrence when they are invoked on behalf of the 
men, women and children who toil in the Twen¬ 
tieth Century. 

As has been so well pointed by Mr. Duncan- 
Clark, this movement is in its very nature a mass 
movement and not in any sense a one-man move¬ 
ment. It is the intelligent expression of a popu¬ 
lar protest; it is the instrument of the people’s 
aspiration for a larger, economic social and polit¬ 
ical life; it is the acknowledgment that our pro¬ 
gress has been unequal from the ethical, political 
and industrial standpoints, so that our govern¬ 
mental clothes need to be changed and enlarged 
to fit our increasing bodily growth, our increas¬ 
ing and changing economic needs. Government 
and industry are the two chief functions of our 
social organism. It is impossible wholly to sep¬ 
arate these, the political and the economic func¬ 
tions. They are interdependent. There is a 
constant interplay and interchange among the 
forces severally going to the composition of each 
of them. The Progressive Party recognizes this 
fact, not as a mere glittering generalization or as 
a philosophy of theoretical abstraction, but as 
something concrete to be practically dealt with. 
In consequence we have adopted certain funda- 


xiv 


INTRODUCTION 

mental principles and have accompanied them 
with a practical programme through which they 
may be realized and wrought into the fabric of 
our social organism. 

Mr. Duncan-Clark takes up chapter by chap¬ 
ter the chief features of this programme. I com¬ 
mend each chapter to the study of our people. 
He has well and truthfully portrayed the condi¬ 
tions which demand a new party. He has shown 
that both the old parties as at present controlled 
and managed represent the forces of reaction. 
If the Republicans had been true to the princi¬ 
ples of Abraham Lincoln, if they had followed 
these principles in good faith, there would have 
been no need of the new party. But the Repub¬ 
lican managers, the bosses in the Republican ma ¬ 
chine deliberately stole the party organization 
from the rank and file of the party, and denied 
to the rank and file the right to express their own 
political convictions. They deliberately wrecked 
the party in the interests of political and com¬ 
mercial privilege, preferring to see it ruined 
rather than that the rank and file should be al¬ 
lowed to control it in their own interest and in the 
interest of the people as a whole. If the Demo¬ 
cratic Party were true to the purposes of Tho¬ 
mas Jefferson for the uplifting of the people it 
would of necessity adopt the Progressive plat- 


xv 


INTRODUCTION 


form. Unfortunately the Democratic Party has 
inherited such a legacy of bad principles from its 
States’ Rights and pro-Slavery days, and from 
the advocates of an uncontrolled and unlimited 
individualism, that it seems practically impossi¬ 
ble for it under any leadership to shake itself free 
from the shackles of its own creation. 

The Socialists are trying to construct a party 
based on class consciousness, and for one class 
only. Socialism may mean almost anything. A 
Socialist may be a man who in practice is a vio¬ 
lent anarchist, and the greatest possible menace 
to this country, or he may merely be a radical 
reformer with whom most of the men who think 
as I do can work heartily as regards the major 
part of his programme. But we thoroughly re¬ 
pudiate his doctrine of class consciousness. The 
Progressives preach social consciousness as an 
antidote to class consciousness. We point out to 
the reactionaries who so bitterly opposed us tha^; 
such social consciousness is the only effective anti¬ 
dote to the class consciousness of the Socialist. I 
believe emphatically, as Mr. Duncan-Clark says, 
that one or the other of these two gospels will 
prevail; and the attitude of the owning class will 
largely determine which of them does prevail. 
Frank acceptance of the Progressive doctrine of 
social consciousness by the men at the top is the 


xvi 


INTRODUCTION 


only effective way to prevent the woeful damage 
that would come from the triumph of class con¬ 
sciousness. 

I commend to our readers all these different 
chapters, those on child labor, on our industrial 
ills, on the need of conserving our rural life, all 
of them. Perhaps it is especially well at this 
time to study those chapters dealing with the 
Progressive Movement, the Trusts and Big Busi¬ 
ness, and the Judiciary and the People. As Mr. 
Duncan-Clark says: 

“To the Progressive the Big Corporation 
is not an evil to be eradicated, but a poten¬ 
tial good to be developed. While insisting 
that no method of duress or chicanery must 
be allowed to interfere with the opportuni¬ 
ties for competition, he does not blind him¬ 
self to the fact that the competitive era in 
industry is passing, and that government 
must reckon with co-operation as the new 
force in shaping the economic life of the 
Nation.” 

“Frankly recognizing the economic condi¬ 
tions that make for big business, and the so¬ 
cial value of industry organized upon a 
large scale for production and distribution, 
the Progressive Movement proposes a pro¬ 
gramme that will give little business an op- 


XVII 


INTRODUCTION 


portunity to grow bigger and impel big 
business to be honest; and by honesty is 
meant more than a mere technical obedience 
to the law of business as it stands; more than 
scrupulous fair dealing with competitors— 
it includes an acknowledgment of obligation 
to the people as they are represented by the 
workers and consumers.” 

As Mr. Duncan-Clark well points out, the Pro¬ 
gressives take a fundamental and radical issue 
with President Wilson when he says that a low¬ 
ering of the tariff, or any kind of tariff reform, 
will solve the trust question and that aside from 
this what is needed for a solution of the question 
is a return to the practice of universal and un¬ 
limited competition. As Mr. Duncan-Clark 
says: 

“The Democratic Party, more strongly 
impressed than even the Republicans with 
the desirability of competition, proposes to 
eliminate the idea of ‘reasonable restraint’ 
from the Sherman law, and to precipitate 
itself in implacable warfare against all busi¬ 
ness combination. The outcome of such pro¬ 
paganda must be worse than that pursued 
by the Republicans. It will result in a disas¬ 
trous disturbance of business to no good end, 
and its impossibilism will become more mani¬ 
fest with every step.” 

xviii 


INTRODUCTION 


As Mr. Duncan-Clark points out, the effort 
to insist on returning to conditions that prevailed 
fifty or more years ago is madness. As a matter 
of fact it is futile madness. It would accomplish 
but a little mischief even if honestly tried. It is 
preposterous to propose to abandon all that has 
been wrought out in the application of the co¬ 
operative idea in business and to return to the era 
of cut-throat competition. We of the Progres¬ 
sive Party propose to increase the prosperity of 
the business man, but we propose that that pros¬ 
perity shall be shared with general public and 
with the wage-workers. Our proposals are defi¬ 
nite. We do not propose to set an arbitrary limit 
to growth. We do not propose to make mere 
size an offence. We do propose that there shall 
be hearty and generous recognition of except¬ 
ional ability if guided by a decent spirit of fair 
play, and if the reward is made to depend upon 
serving, and not upon swindling, the public. We 
do propose to prevent growth by oppression, and 
wholesomely to discipline unscrupulous business 
into a sense of social responsibility. We propose 
as remedies publicity, supervision and regulation. 
Even the reactionaries are now reluctantly ad¬ 
mitting that there is need of the first two of these 
three remedies. As Mr. Duncan Clark says: 


xix 


INTRODUCTION 


“As to the character and extent of the 
third there is room for debate, and the final 
determination must be the result of careful 
experiment, a step or so at a time, as has 
been the case in the Government’s dealing 
with the railroads.” 

Mr. Duncan-Clark points out that the Pro¬ 
gressive Movement assumes the innate de¬ 
cency of man. We believe that business men 
would prefer to conduct their affairs honestly 
rather than dishonestly. We believe that 
the spirit of fair play is dominant in the 
hearts of most of us, and will awaken to new 
strength under conditions designed to stimulate 
it and to make it easier of operation. We be¬ 
lieve that the average decent business man—and 
the average business man is decent—will wel¬ 
come the kind supervision and regulation that af¬ 
fords guidance to him in the conduct of his af¬ 
fairs, pointing the way to compliance with the 
law, and to social co-operation, rather than wait¬ 
ing until wrong has been done, and then hauling 
the offenders into court. We believe that the 
Progressives have in mind a better solution for 
the great business proposition before the public 
than is offered by any other group of political 
thinkers. The business plank is one of the most 
essential parts of the platform. It is as essential 


xx 


INTRODUCTION 

to the well being and happiness of those of our 
people for whom the conditions of life are hard 
as are our specific pledges for their benefit. We 
believe that the business man, the farmer, the 
professional man, the wage workers, down at bot¬ 
tom have more interests in common than they 
have interests that are diverse, and we believe 
that the Progressive Party alone offers the pro¬ 
gramme by which the diverse interests can be 
reconciled or minimized and all the needs of the 
great common interest fully met. 

Theodore Roosevelt. 


Sept. 12, 1913. 









The Progressive Movement 
































The Progressive Movement 


CHAPTER I 
Progressive Fundamentals 

“The prime need today is to face the fact that 
we are now in the midst of a great economic evo¬ 
lution.” 

These words were spoken by Theodore Roose¬ 
velt in his “Confession of Faith” at the first 
national convention of the Progressive party. 
They take us to the very root of the Progres¬ 
sive movement. They formulate in a single sent¬ 
ence a fundamental truth that coordinates all the 
characteristic phenomena of contemporary so¬ 
cial, industrial and political unrest. 

In approaching a consideration of this basic 
statement of fact it should be made clear, in 
order to disabuse the reader’s mind of any pos¬ 
sible prejudice, that the Progressive movement is 
not a class movement; it is not an attack upon 
any class that constitutes an essential factor in 
our existing social and industrial system. It is 
rather an attempt, scientifically and philosophi- 
1 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


cally, to discover a means for such readjustment 
of all factors, in their mutual relations and inter¬ 
dependence, as will result in the largest measure 
of good for the whole people. 

This thought will be moie fully elaborated in 
the second chapter, but its brief presentation 
now will serve to prepare the reader for the 
spirit and purpose of what follows. In the hu¬ 
mor of those who reason together in order to find 
a common basis and a common modus operandi 
for the general welfare, without impugning mo¬ 
tives or seeking needless controversy, it is hoped 
we may be able to view some of the pressing 
problems of our time and to consider some of the 
remedies that are proposed by the Progressive 
party. In other words the aim is a better under¬ 
standing. Much of the trouble and discord that 
afflicts the world, much of the bitterness that 
obscures clear vision, arises, not from malice, but 
from misunderstanding. 

It will be necessary to speak plainly, and 
where evils are evident they will not be spared; 
but the attack is neither upon individuals nor 
upon a class, but upon those ills and injustices 
that are the result of social maladjustment and 
2 


PROGRESSIVE FUNDAMENTALS 


of an imperfect development of the social con¬ 
science. 

When Colonel Roosevelt said “We are now in 
the midst of a great economic evolution,” his 
more precise meaning was, obviously, that we are 
now in the midst of a great crisis in economic 
evolution. Economic evolution is a continuous 
process. For years it may be imperceptible to 
any but the closest student. Then, suddenly, it 
seems to develop impetus, and civilization faces 
a new crisis in which history is made. 

Former Senator Beveridge has indicated one 
of the chief factors contributing to the critical 
situation in which the Nation now finds itself. 
In his address as chairman of the Progressive 
party convention he dwelt upon the remarkable 
improvement in the facility for wealth produc¬ 
tion that has resulted from the introduction of 
machinery. “One man,” said Mr. Beveridge, 
“can do the work of twenty.” 

Necessarily this revolution in industry has had 
a tremendous effect upon the whole social fabric. 
Col. Roosevelt recognizes the same fact in other 
words. He says, “In the last twenty years an 
increasing percentage of our people have come to 
3 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


depend on industry for their livelihood.” He 
means, of course, that form of industry for which 
the tools are owned by others than those who use 
them. 

The reason for this is plain. With the inven¬ 
tion and improvement of machinery the era of 
handicrafts passed. Fifty years ago most men 
owned their tools and their jobs. They were 
able to make a comfortable living by supplying 
a limited market, usually a mere neighborhood 
market, with the commodities produced by the 
slow process of hand labor. But the introduc¬ 
tion of machinery wrought a transformation. 
The competition of the machine drove the small 
handicraft producer out of business, and forced 
him to seek employment from the men who 
owned the machines. 

And thus the ranks of the men who owned 
their jobs and their tools were gradually 
thinned, while the army of those dependent upon 
others for an opportunity to earn a living con 
tinually increased. 

In the days of small industries and handicraft 
the master and the men worked together; there 
was an intimacy of relationship and a mutuality 
4 


PROGRESSIVE FUNDAMENTALS 


of interest that gave an aspect to toil which ifc 
has almost wholly lost in these latter days. Now 
we have thousands of men cooperating under 
centralized direction. Each man has his own 
restricted function to perform. He knows little 
or nothing of the business in which he is a 
“Hand,” outside of his own specialized sphere. 
The man at the head of the concern may be ut¬ 
terly ignorant of the mechanism by which his 
product is manufactured. He is an executive; 
he understands purchasing supplies and making 
sales; he can organize and manage. He hires 
superintendents and foremen who are experts, 
and who can attend to the details of process. 
Those to whom the concern belongs—the stock¬ 
holders, even the directors—may live thousands 
of miles from the factory; may never have seen 
more of it than a picture on a letterhead, and 
seldom care to hear more of it than a financial 
statement may set forth. Their interest begins 
and ends in its profit-making possibilities. That 
there is a lacking sense of social responsibility on 
the part of the various factors in such an organi¬ 
zation is not surprising. It is only necessary to 
contrast the attitude of the extremes in this re- 
5 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


lationship to see how naturally, how inevitably, a 
gulf has widened that threatens social disloca¬ 
tion. At one extreme we have the workers, in¬ 
terested primarily, if not solely, in wages, and at 
the other we have the owners, interested primar¬ 
ily in dividends. The common interest—the 
work itself—no longer unites them. 

Following the introduction of machinery and 
steam power improvement was rapid and the or¬ 
ganization of productive industry went on apace. 
As so-called labor-saving devices multiplied, not 
only were more of the independent producers 
forced into the ranks of the wage-earners, but 
the opportunities for the wage-earner grew less, 
since “one man could do the work of twenty.” 
So we came to be burdened with the problem of 
enforced unemployment and all its sequence of 
social ills. 

While yet the West was new territory this 
trend of economic evolution was delayed in 
reaching a crisis. There was opportunity in the 
West. But the tidal wave of population that 
sought its fertile fields, its mines, its ranches and 
its forests is now recoiling upon the East, and 
the nation is feeling the pressure. 

6 


PROGRESSIVE FUNDAMENTALS 


Nor is the effect of the industrial revolution 
that has been wrought by machinery felt alone 
in the manufacturing industries. Agriculture, 
more slowly but no less surely, is being brought 
under its transforming influence. The appear¬ 
ance of the power machine on the farm has 
worked a very miracle of change, and the man 
who cannot afford the modern substitute for the 
horse and the mule is at a serious disadvantage. 
The need of large capital in farming is becoming 
an important factor in the situation. The recent 
agitation for facilitating borrowing on the part 
of the farmer is one of its surface manifestations. 
And these tendencies, in recent years, have es¬ 
caped the field of productive industry to find a 
widened opportunity in the world of merchand¬ 
ising. The department store and the store-chain 
are evidences of this fact. The department 
store was greeted with prejudice and opposition 
on its arrival. It crowded out many of the 
smaller stores. I knew a man who had a suc¬ 
cessful business of his own in the sale of men’s 
furnishings. Two years after the first big de¬ 
partment store opened in my home city he had 
closed his doors and taken a job as salesman be- 
7 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


hind the counter of his new rival. He is but an 
example of thousands. Today we accept the de¬ 
partment store as an established institution and a 
most valuable one, just as we must accept the big 
factory in industry and the trust in commerce. 

But while accepting these things we must not 
shut our eyes to certain incidental consequences 
of their existence. It must be our effort to gain 
a social viewpoint that will enable us to re-adjust 
relations so as to eliminate the evils and perpetu - 
uate the advantages of the new system. 

The greatly increased productive power of an 
era of machinery, organization and scientific ef¬ 
ficiency has resulted in the accumulation of 
wealth in the hands of the comparatively few who 
own or control the means of production and dis¬ 
tribution, and in the driving of the many into 
the ranks of the wage-earners, dependent upon 
this minority for the opportunity to gain a live¬ 
lihood. 

The distance between the extreme of bare sub ¬ 
sistence and the extreme of over-abundance has 
tremendously increased. The encouragement 
for thrift has been vastly lessened. Social in¬ 
vestigators tell us that the average wage-worker 
8 


PROGRESSIVE FUNDAMENTALS 


never expects to be anything else. He has dis¬ 
covered that saving is often disappointing. 
“Time and time again,” said one to me, “I have 
managed to get my head out of the hole only to 
find somebody waiting with a club to knock me 
back in again.” Rent, interest and profits—the 
devices by which those who own take toll of those 
who do not—have gone far to provoke the belief 
that the best the average wage-earner can do is to 
get as much of comfort as he can out of what he 
makes from day to day, and trust to Providence 
for tomorrow. 

There being at all times more of the dependent 
class than there are opportunities for employ¬ 
ment in wealth production or useful social ser¬ 
vice, we have, as a consequence, an ever present 
problem of unemployment and the persistence of 
a class that exists by some method of parasitism, 
frequently unlawful. Hence we have a system 
that fosters poverty and breeds crime. Those 
who are denied the chance to earn a living, or 
who find the circumstances under which it must 
be earned so onerous and perilous as to make it 
undesirable, will resort to professional mendi¬ 
cancy or employ cunning and violence. In ei- 
9 


TIIE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


ther case they constitute a burden and a menace 
to society. 

On the other hand the few, into whose control 
has passed the bulk of the nation’s wealth, are in¬ 
stinctively impelled to seek protection and pro¬ 
motion for their vast interests by the exercise of 
the power inherent in their economic superiority. 
Such protection is most easily available through 
government as expressed in legislation; such pro¬ 
motion is achieved by obtaining special privileges 
and evading restricting laws. For these ends, 
too frequently, money is employed, and corrup¬ 
tion and demoralization of the people’s govern¬ 
ment results. It is to this condition that Mr. 
Beveridge refers when he speaks of the “invisible 
government.” 

Between the restless and often unreasoning 
protest of the disinherited many and the selfish 
domination of the privileged few, the great mid¬ 
dle class suffers. It is exploited from above by 
dishonest big business and menaced from below 
by desperate poverty. The former presses it 
down; the latter reaches up to engulf it. More 
and more of the members of the middle class suc¬ 
cumb to the double attack, sinking into the ranks 
of the dependent. 


10 


PROGRESSIVE FUNDAMENTALS 


Such, briefly, is the situation that the moving 
spirits in the Progressive crusade recognize. To 
them it is obvious that these conditions cannot be 
prolonged without involving a serious peril of 
revolution, which, after all, is merely evolution 
accelerated by the direct action of violence. The 
understanding of this problem in its causes, its 
present acute phase and its future dangerous 
possibilities, is the motive of those who have 
sought to give guidance to the prevailing unrest 
through the instrumentality of a new political 
party that will appeal to the awakening social 
conscience of the people, irrespective of class, 
and that will provide a means for united and de¬ 
termined effort to solve the problem with sanity 
and safety while it is still possible. 

It is the faith of these men and women that 
the conditions which threaten social stability are 
not incurable; that human nature is not beyond 
redemption, and that poverty and crime, with all 
their attendant ills, are largely symptoms of mis¬ 
understanding and maladjustment. 

The potency of this appeal and of the move¬ 
ment that has so rapidly crystallized about it, lies 
in the fact that the masses of the people feel in 
II 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


their daily lives the acute presence of the prob¬ 
lem. In the words of Mr. Beveridge, “This par * 
ty comes from the grass roots. It has grown 
from the soil of the people’s hard necessities. It 
has the vitality of the people’s strong convic¬ 
tions.” The Progressive (movement comes to 
interpret for the people a consciousness of 
wrongs that has been ill-defined in the minds of 
many. Nor is this consciousness found only in 
the minds of those who have suffered most. It 
is happily characteristic of our time that not a 
few who are removed from any immediate con¬ 
tact with poverty and distress have become 
seized by a conviction that their very removal in¬ 
volves an obligation, and may be enjoyed at an 
unreckoned and disproportionate cost to others. 

The nation suffers from economic growing 
pains. We have not caught up politically or 
ethically with our industrial progress. Our 
clothes have not been enlarged and remodelled 
to fit our increasing breadth and stature. Pres¬ 
ident Wilson recognized this fact when he said 
during his campaign “There is need to effect a 
great readjustment.” The Progressives believe, 
however, that the Democratic patty lacks the 
12 


PROGRESSIVE FUNDAMENTALS 


genius, the breadth of vision and the freedom to 
carry out the necessary readjusting programme. 
It is hampered by its adherence to economic 
theories promulgated a century ago, in an era of 
small competitive enterprises; by its belief in the 
outgrown doctrine of State rights, and by its 
views on the tariff. Furthermore it retains with¬ 
in its organization a strong reactionary element. 
It has yet to prove that it is purged of those who 
bow the knee to the Baal of the “invisible gov¬ 
ernment.” 

It should be clear from what I have said that, 
whatever else the Progressive movement may be, 
it is essentially not a one man movement. It is 
in its very nature a mass movement; the intelli¬ 
gent expression of a popular protest; the instru¬ 
ment of the people’s aspiration for a larger life— 
economically, socially and politically. 

It is true the party owes much to the leader¬ 
ship of such men as Theodore Roosevelt, Albert 
J. Beveridge, Hiram W. Johnson and of such 
women as Miss Jane Addams. But these lead¬ 
ers did not make the movement. It would have 
come had they never existed. It would persist 
were they all to be suddenly snatched away by 
13 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


some strange power. In the hard school of ex¬ 
perience the people have been learning their les¬ 
son. The effort to regain popular control of 
government had begun in several of the States 
before it broke out on the floor of Congress. 
Col. Roosevelt was in Africa when political in¬ 
surgency developed into an aggressive attack 
upon the reactionary forces in the House of Re¬ 
presentatives and the Senate. The overthrow 
of Cannonism was the first victory in the nation¬ 
al arena. The insurgent spirit spread, and as it 
spread it engaged in self-examination, it became 
self-conscious, it began to understand its own 
source and cause and aim. Its scope widened. 

Let us summarize the programme of the Pro¬ 
gressive movement as the expression of popular 
protest and aspiration. 

From the economic standpoint the basic idea 
may be thus set forth: There exists in the Uni¬ 
ted States, undeveloped or in process of develop¬ 
ment, an abundance of wealth to supply amply 
the need and comfort of every man, woman and 
child. There exists the machinery for the pro¬ 
duction and distribution of this wealth in suffi¬ 
cient volume for the demands of the whole popu- 
14 


PROGRESSIVE FUNDAMENTALS 


lation. A rational system of production and 
distribution, that recognizes the principle of so¬ 
cial obligation, will make possible the elimination 
of all occasion for want and poverty on the part 
of those willing to engage in honest toil of brain 
and brawn. It will secure to capital stability 
and a reasonable reward; it will give labor a fail- 
wage and to every man a chance to work under 
conditions conducive to health and general wel¬ 
fare; it will free women from excessive hours of 
labor and assure them decent remuneration; it 
will emancipate childhood from the bondage oi 
mill and mine and factory, and, finally, it will 
protect the (consumer against exploitation by 
such methods as unlawful price agreements and 
restriction of output. 

From the political standpoint the Progressive 
movement declares that the government belongs 
to the people; that freedom and justice can be 
conserved only by a self-controlled democracy 
acting through its chosen representatives; that 
the people must be the court of last resort on 
legislation involving constitutional interpreta¬ 
tion as it affects the police power of the individ¬ 
ual states; that they must be given the power to 
15 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


veto or to initiate laws directly when their repre¬ 
sentatives fail to act in accordance with their 
wishes; that all elective officers must be nominat¬ 
ed directly and elected directly by the people, 
and must be subject to recall if negligent or dis¬ 
loyal in office; and that no sex barrier must be 
allowed to exist at the ballot box. 

From the social standpoint the Progressive 
movement establishes itself upon the conviction 
that human rights are superior to property 
rights; that justice is a bigger word than char¬ 
ity, and can be translated into the relations of the 
mart and factory; that honesty is a bigger word 
than success, and can be enforced upon those 
whose code omits it; that cooperation is more po¬ 
tent for human welfare and progress than com¬ 
petition, and needs only wise direction in the in¬ 
terests of all to make it a mighty factor for the 
common good, and, finally, that the highest ideal 
of citizenship, which is politics in its true signi¬ 
ficance, is service. 


le 


CHAPTER II 
A Progressive Philosophy 

The nation constitutes a social organism of 
vitally inter-related and interdependent func¬ 
tions. In order to conserve its healthful vigor, 
promote its peace and prosperity, and assure its 
steady growth toward a larger measure of life’s 
enjoyment for all its people, these functions 
must recognize their mutual responsibility— 
their obligation to one another and to the organ¬ 
ism as a whole. 

This I conceive to be the fundamental prin¬ 
ciple of the Progressive philosophy. Others 
may express it in different phraseology, or from 
a different standpoint, but a study of the plat¬ 
form and of the speeches and writings of its lead¬ 
ing exponents discloses to my mind this underly 
ing thought linking all proposals and policies in¬ 
to a coherent chain of dynamic purpose. 

No class, no interest, no activity can be treat¬ 
ed in isolation from all others. The labor prob¬ 
lem is not a problem of one group, but of the 
whole society. The problem of business, big and 

17 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


little, is the problem of the organism in its en¬ 
tirety. The problem of government is one that 
concerns all classes, all ages and both sexes. 

The welfare of the nation, then, from this 
viewpoint, does not mean primarily the welfare 
of its capitalists, nor, as some argue, does it mean 
solely the welfare of the working class. 

Because the capitalist group is prosperous we 
are not to assume as a necessary corollary that 
the people as a whole are prosperous and that 
all is well. Nor, on the other hand, are we to as¬ 
sume that the millenium may be won by deport¬ 
ing all the capitalists in the country and turning 
over everything they possessed to the workers. 

Every newspaper reader is familiar with the 
interviews that appear from time to time in 
which some magnate of the financial world, about 
to depart for a few months of rest in Europe, or 
just returned from a sojourn in Egypt, express¬ 
es his satisfaction with conditions, points to the 
high prices of railroad and industrial securities, 
speaks of the encouraging crop outlook, and ven¬ 
tures his opinion that we are entering upon an 
era of enduring prosperity. 

To these men it is amazing that anybody 
18 


A PROGRESSIVE PHILOSOPHY 


should be discontented or unsatisfied. They 
frankly confess their inability to understand the 
prevailing unrest among the masses of the peo¬ 
ple. 

But nothing is more terribly true than the pos¬ 
sibility that an extreme of wealth may exist side 
by side with an extreme of poverty. Nothing is 
more grimly comic than to hear some poor fel¬ 
low, who has scarce enough to pay board and 
lodging, wax eloquent in his tribute to the fabu¬ 
lous riches of his country. “We are a great and 
prosperous people,” he exclaims, linking himself 
for the moment by some hypnotic wizardry with 
the millions of his economic masters. These pa¬ 
radoxes are commonplaces. There was a time 
when the multitude swallowed them without 
winking; but the multitude is growing wiser. It 
begins to realize that its partnership with million¬ 
aires in the prosperity of the country has been 
largely fictitious ; that the price of stocks is not 
necessarily an index of its own welfare. 

Even the farmer has learned by stern exper¬ 
ience that the high cost of beef and flour to the 
consumer may not mean a great deal for him. 

The fact that these things are true points to a 
19 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


maladjustment of functions in the social organ¬ 
ism, rather than to any inherent desire to ex¬ 
ploitation, or incurable bias toward injustice and 
greed on the part of a class. 

Fairness compels us to recognize the fact that, 
however we may suffer from a disproportionate 
distribution of wealth, the men who today con¬ 
trol or own its larger measure represent a factor 
in the social organism that has been of the great¬ 
est value in the development of the country and 
in the creating of the magnificent productive 
system that is so potent in opportunity and pos¬ 
sibility for good. 

These men are not to be attacked. Not a few 
of them have sought to use their great wealth for 
the public good, acting in the spirit of trustees 
for that which they have acquired under a system 
of socialized industry and individual prosperity. 
The maladjustment is not of their creating. We 
are all of us responsible. In the scramble of a 
mad individualism to grasp the independence and 
the power that come through possession we have 
neglected the principle of organic welfare. It is 
this principle to which we are now returning in 


20 


A PROGRESSIVE PHILOSOPHY 


a new resolve and with a new understanding of 
its importance. 

Maladjustment is found in politics. It is our 
Fourth of July boast that the people alone are 
sovereign in the United States. The cartoonist 
pictured, in days gone by, the crowned and seep - 
tered voter sitting enthroned upon a ballot box. 
This is the ideal, but not the real; and so palpable 
has the proof become that it is no longer real that 
the cartoonist has abandoned a once favorite 
symbol, and now invariably depicts the voter as 
an insignificant, wizened and worried individual, 
who goes into hysterical transports whenever, by 
some odd chance, he wins a victory. 

Pursuing the thought suggested by the con¬ 
densed statement of Progressive philosophy with 
which this chapter begins, we may regard gov¬ 
ernment and industry as two chief functions of 
the social organism—the political and economic. 
Each of these may be subdivided into lesser 
groups of functioning activities. Industry in¬ 
cludes the capitalist or employing class, the 
workers and the consumers; government includes 
the legislative, executive and judicial representa¬ 
tives of the people, and the voters. The prob- 
21 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


lem of democracy is so to adjust all of these 
functions in their interdependency as to make 
each contribute the largest measure of good to 
the welfare of the whole. This is the problem 
which the Progressive movement is concerned in 
solving. 

Between industry and government, as chief 
functions of the social organism, there is a close 
and proper relationship ideally. It is unhappily 
true that, as a matter of fact, the relationship 
has been, too frequently, close but improper. 

Industry has made its point of contact with 
government largely through one subordinate 
function—capital. In this contact capital has 
insisted that it is not a subordinate function of 
industry—merely one of three co-equal factors 
of which labor and consumption are the other 
two—but that it is preeminent, and thus it has 
reasoned that it is the duty of government to 
protect and even to promote it. Government 
has responded. It has devoted so much of its 
energy to this task that many other interests, no 
less important, have been over-shadowed and 
neglected. 

In its capitalist guise industry has succeeded 
22 


A PROGRESSIVE PHILOSOPHY 


in persuading many that the welfare of the na¬ 
tion is dependent solely and wholly upon its wel¬ 
fare. It has succeeded in persuading itself that 
this is true. The men who control industry are 
sincere in their belief that they are absolutely es¬ 
sential to the prosperity, even to the very exis¬ 
tence of the country. They regard themselves 
as the pillars of the social and economic struc¬ 
ture. One of them made his name famous by 
his blunt assumption that God had selected him 
and a few other superior human beings to ad¬ 
minister the natural resources of the land. 

Upon this hypothesis these men have justified 
themselves in dominating and directing govern¬ 
ment. Often the methods employed have lacked 
scruple. Senators and Representatives have 
been bought; legislation has been driven through 
by sheer force of wealth; popular legislation has 
been smothered in money. The pernicious sys¬ 
tem of maintaining salaried lobbies has grown 
out of this firmly imbedded idea. Even judges 
have been given European trips and otherwise 
subtly influenced. The ramifications of this 
capitalist hallucination are many and varied, and 
its greatest peril often lies in its less evidently 
23 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


improper deportment. It is a species of obses¬ 
sion that distorts the vision, warps motive and 
works social wrong even when it believes it is en¬ 
gaged in social service. 

But now the people are demanding that labor 
and the consumer be recognized as having claims 
as strong as those of capital in the relation of in - 
dustry to government, and that capital shall re¬ 
cognize its responsibility and obligation to the 
social organism as a whole. In other words the 
people urge that government must regulate in¬ 
dustry so that it will contribute to the prosperity 
of the masses instead of merely to the wealth of 
the few. 

This is the necessary readjustment of func¬ 
tional relations required by the Progressive phil¬ 
osophy. 

The party platform in 1912 distinctly set forth 
this principle. In that division of it dealing with 
business it declared: 

We demand that the test of true prosperity 
shall be the benefits conferred thereby on all 
the citizens, not confined to individuals or 
classes, and that the test of corporate effi¬ 
ciency be the ability better to serve the pub- 
24 


A PROGRESSIVE PHILOSOPHY 


lie; that those who profit by control of bus¬ 
iness affairs shall justify that profit and that 
control by sharing with the public the fruits 
thereof. 

The specific methods by which the Progres¬ 
sives propose to accomplish this readjustment of 
industrial and governmental relations will be dis¬ 
cussed in later chapters. It is characteristic of 
the movement and the party that it has not dealt 
in a philosophy of theoretical abstraction, in mere 
glittering generalizations; it has adopted certain 
fundamental principles and accompanied them 
with a practical programme by which they may 
be wrought into the fabric of our social organism. 
In this, as much as in any other feature, the 
Progressive party transcends its political rivals 
claiming progressive aims. They have not yet 
had the courage to give definition to their avowed 
purpose of reform, or else they lack the construc¬ 
tive faculty—the ability to proceed from the gen¬ 
eral to the particular. 

It requires no keen vision to perceive the in¬ 
justice that exists in the present social order. It 
requires no great boldness to denounce it, now 
that the minds of the people are stirred and re- 
25 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


sponsive. But to go further; to bring these 
ideals down out of the clouds and to make their 
effective mundane application is a task calling 
for a higher order of intelligence and courage. 
This course immediately challenges criticism and 
opposition. Those who fear change, who are 
beneficiaries of things as they are, feel no great 
anxiety as long as the proponents of reform are 
content to deal in abstractions. They are even 
willing to applaud, for the sake of the popular¬ 
ity that seeming sympathy with progress brings. 
But as soon as the political philosopher becomes 
the practical statesman, and begins to apply his 
theories of the rostrum to the methods of the 
mart and the legislative assembly, real warfare 
results. 

Before passing on to a discussion of the details 
of social readjustment let us consider certain 
broad lines of action upon which the Progressive 
movement must translate its political and econo¬ 
mic philosophy into terms of actual life and hu¬ 
man relationship. 

And first, the people must be made supreme in 
government. As we have seen this is theoreti¬ 
cally true of our political system. In the ab- 
26 


A PROGRESSIVE PHILOSOPHY 


stract no one ventures to oppose the right of the 
people to rule. In reality many oppose it. It 
is limited, obstructed and denied by individuals 
and by institutions. There has arisen in certain 
quarters a theory that regards the people as a 
mob—unreasoning, vacillating and subversive of 
order and security; this theory necessarily in¬ 
volves as its counterpart a belief in a ruling class, 
a class of superior intelligence, purer motive and 
higher aim. Unconsciously we have been evolv¬ 
ing in a republic an aristocracy, a politico-econo- 
mic aristocracy, that assumes the task of direct¬ 
ing affairs for the welfare of the Nation, fre¬ 
quently opposing its own wisdom to the wisdom 
of the majority. It is in the main benevolent; 
it believes in doing things for the people; but it 
is unwilling to trust the people to do more than a 
very little for themselves. 

This viewpoint, reflecting, in those political 
circles where it obtains, the thought of our mas¬ 
ters of wealth, must have its logical culmination 
in a form of feudalism, under which the depend¬ 
ent masses will be the beneficiaries of the inde¬ 
pendent few. It contemplates a social order so 
planned that the harvests of a multitude of la- 
27 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


borers are garnered by a few self-constituted cus¬ 
todians, by them to be dispensed in such measure 
and in such form as they deem best. 

However ideal such a system may be in the 
minds of those who are in a position to play the 
part of providence, assuredly it is not the destiny 
which was in the thought of those who founded 
the Republic, nor is it the desire of the people. 

In order to counteract this tendency and io 
restore the current of our national life to its 
original channel, the goal of which is a free and 
contented democracy, the right of the people to 
rule must be established upon a firm basis. 
Those things that hinder must be removed, and, 
where needed, new instruments must be provided 
whereby the sovereignty of the people may be 
effectively and directly exercised. This phase 
of the problem will be dealt with fully in succeed¬ 
ing chapters. 

The second distinct line of action upon which 
the Progressive readjustment must proceed deals 
with the attitude to be assumed toward the econo¬ 
mic function in the social organism, the combin¬ 
ation of which with government has caused the 
tendency referred to above. 

28 


A PROGRESSIVE PHILOSOPHY 


Because certain incidental ills are recognized 
as arising from the predominance of this function 
in its capitalist form it is not to be supposed that 
the Progressive movement contemplates any vio¬ 
lent attack upon it. On the contrary it frankly 
recognizes the vital importance of the modern 
phase of industry, and accepts as a fundamental 
axiom the permanence of the cooperative method 
in business. 

To the Progressive the trust is not an evil to 
be eradicated, but a potential good to be devel¬ 
oped. While insisting that no method of duress 
or chicanery must be allowed to interfere with 
the opportunities for competition, he does not 
blind himself to the fact that the competitive era 
in industry is passing, and that government must 
reckon with cooperation as the new force in shap¬ 
ing the economic life of the Nation. 

There is a school of political economists who 
advocate the restoration of competition as the 
remedy for existing ills, and who would check 
the tendency to centralization of governmental 
authority by reviving the doctrine of state rights. 
This means an effort to readjust the social organ¬ 
ism on the pattern of a century ago, instead of 
29 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


in harmony with the conditions of today. This 
is reaction masquerading as progress. Such res¬ 
toration cannot be effected without destruction. 
It involves the abandonment of the larger part of 
what has been gained in a hundred years of 
growth in the realm of business and industry, 
and the unseating of the people’s sovereign pow ¬ 
er in its national authority. 

The aim of the Progressive movement is not 
to destroy, but to conserve and direct the great 
forces of industrial and political life so that they 
may contribute of their best to the happiness and 
prosperity of the people. It would retain for 
business every honest advantage it has won, eve¬ 
ry development in method that makes for greater 
efficiency, every ounce of power that may be 
used to contribute to the general good. It 
would wipe from its records the stain of oppres¬ 
sion, the blood of those injured and killed 
through needless neglect and indifference, the 
tears of little children imprisoned in mills and 
mines and factories, the blot of trickery and 
fraud and lawlessness. It would endow it with 
a new dignity and beauty as a useful servant of 
the commonweal. 


30 


A PROGRESSIVE PHILOSOPHY 


And to this work of political and economic re¬ 
demption, the Progressive movement maintains, 
the power of the people through their federal 
government must be brought. In his addresses 
on the “New Nationalism” Theodore Roosevelt 
first startled the country into a realization of the 
tremendous change that its material develop¬ 
ment had wrought in the nature of the problems 
confronting the people. He opened many eyes 
to see that issues, which in earlier years were lo¬ 
calized and subject to state control, had out¬ 
grown their narrow boundaries and become ques¬ 
tions of national concern, susceptible of effective 
handling only from the federal center of popular 
authority. 

We are no longer a loosely bound bundle of 
self-sufficient commonwealths. We are one peo¬ 
ple. Forty-eight states are knit together by ties 
of rapid intercommunication and bonds of com¬ 
merce. Wall street is not the financial center of 
New York, or even of the East alone, it is the 
throbbing money pulse of the Nation. Only a 
national policy can meet this new condition. 

Industry and commerce recognize no arbitrary 
political boundaries; even vice has refused to be 
31 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


confined. The most potent argument urged 
against State regulation of hours of labor, wages 
and conditions of toil is the fact that it imposes a 
handicap upon those industries so regulated in 
competition with the uncontrolled industries of 
other states. Nor is the argument unreasonable. 
It must be given consideration. But it points 
clearly to the fact that problems of this kind may 
be dealt with fairly and adequately only by 
federal action that puts all competing industries 
upon an equal basis. 

The existence of a so-called “twilight zone,’ 
an ill-defined and hazy territory between state 
and federal authority, has afforded undisturbed 
opportunity for the operations of the exploiter. 

Without infringing upon state autonomy the 
Progressive movement demands the illumina¬ 
tion of the “twilight zone.” It insists that the 
federal government must have liberty to exer¬ 
cise its function in behalf of the common welfare 
where the power of the individual state is shown 
to be insufficient. It proposes to supplement 
the authority of the state in such manner as to 
eliminate the no-man’s land that forms the ex¬ 
ploiter’s paradise. 


32 


A PROGRESSIVE PHILOSOPHY 


Not only the promotion of human welfare, 
but the conservation of our natural resources de¬ 
pend upon the recognition and application oi 
this principle—this national policy. The coal of 
Pennsylvania, the petroleum of Texas, the for¬ 
ests of Washington, the water-power of a thous¬ 
and rivers and streams, are inseparably related 
to the welfare and prosperity of the whole peo¬ 
ple. These things are to be considered rightly 
as national assets. They may not be left safely 
to the administration of any purely local gov¬ 
ernment. Under such a system the progressive 
state is at the mercy of the state that is corrupt 
and contented. In order that all may be pro¬ 
tected, under the narrow policy of state rights, 
we must wait until every state has attained to a 
sense of social obligation. Before that day 
dawns privilege will have gained so strong a 
grasp upon the situation that escape will be well 
nigh impossible short of revolution. 

The interstate commerce law is one of the 
clearest and most useful recognitions of federal 
authority. It has proved an effective means of 
regulating the railroads, and it has provided an 
instrument through which certain evils may be 
33 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


largely mitigated. The Mann white slave act, 
prohibiting interstate traffic in women for im¬ 
moral purposes, is an instance of its wholesome 
employment. The Webb bill, forbidding the 
shipment of liquor into dry territory, is another 
example, the constitutionality of which, however* 
has to be tested yet. The Beveridge child labor 
bill, as yet unenacted, is based upon the power or 
the government to control interstate commerce, 
and is an illustration of how the Federal author¬ 
ity can interfere to lessen an evil that has out- 
grown the limits of state regulation. 

The Supreme Court, in its opinion upon a suit 
arising out of the Mann white slave act, has giv¬ 
en strong countenance to this theory of Federal 
authority. It has sustained the right of the Fe¬ 
deral government to regulate interstate com¬ 
merce in the interests of morality and human wel¬ 
fare, and has laid down the principle that Con¬ 
gress may supplement the power of the state 
where such action is necessary to make legisla¬ 
tion effective. 

These, then, are the main lines along which the 
Progressive movement proposes to work out its 
programme of readjustment, Atuning itself to 
U 


A PROGRESSIVE PHILOSOPHY 


the spirit and impulse of the age, emphasizing 
all that is constructive in modern tendencies and 
preaching the doctrine of a social organism, de¬ 
pending for its health and growth upon the har ¬ 
monious adjustment of all its functions, the Pro¬ 
gressive party gives prominence to the federal 
government as the center from which the life oi 
the organism may be most readily nourished, 
directed and treated for those conditions which 
need remedy. 

Upon a foundation of political philosophy so 
broad and so firm, with an appeal to the intelli¬ 
gence and the sympathy of the people so direct 
and so convincing, the Progressive movement as¬ 
sumes the proportions of a great national party 
—the only truly national party the country has 
seen since the Civil War. 

Mr. Beveridge has emphasized this fine phase 
of the new party. The bridging of the gulf be¬ 
tween North and South, a gulf perpetuated by 
political traditions and prejudices that are con¬ 
stantly recalled and stimulated by the controv¬ 
ersies of the two historic parties, is no small part 
of the glorious destiny to be fulfilled by the Pro¬ 
gressives. 


35 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


The Republican party saved the Nation from 
dismemberment, hut in an hour when the vision 
failed, it scattered the seed that has borne fruit 
in a deplorable political separatism. The solid 
South is the most serious condemnation of the 
Republican reconstruction policy. It is a heavy 
handicap upon the progress of the Southland and 
upon the common action of all the people for 
the common good. 

Only a movement like that which has found 
expression in the Progressive party can break up 
this solidity, and give to the South a freedom of 
political thought and action that will enable it to 
take its place of due dignity and prestige in the 
affairs of the Nation. 

The Progressive party is unencumbered by 
bitter memories; its appeal is universal; it carries 
no hidden insult for sentiments still cherished, no 
provocation for smouldering passion; it bears no 
stain upon its record caused by attempting to 
force the political recognition of an inferior race 
upon an unwilling and superior people. De¬ 
manding justice for the negro and the white, for 
all races and classes and creeds, it points the way 
to the achievement of this ideal through a vol- 
36 


A PROGRESSIVE PHILOSOPHY 


untary cooperation of all good citizens in the 
spirit of mutual forbearance and far-sighted 
patriotism. 

No better, finer words can close this chapter 
than those of Albert J. Beveridge, with which 
he sounded the keynote of the Progressive move¬ 
ment at the Chicago convention in August 1912: 

“We stand for a nobler America. We stand 
for an undivided Nation. We stand for a 
broader liberty, a fuller justice. We stand for 
social brotherhood as against savage individual¬ 
ism. We stand for intelligent cooperation in¬ 
stead of a reckless competition. We stand for 
mutual helpfulness instead of mutual hatred. 
We stand for equal rights as a fact of life instead 
of a catch-word of politics. We stand for the 
rule of the people as a practical truth instead of 
a meaningless pretense. We stand for a repre¬ 
sentative government that represents the people. 
We battle for the actual rights of man.” 


37 


CHAPTER III 

Restoring Power to the People 

If social and economic evolution is to go for¬ 
ward as an orderly process, linking peace with 
power and pursuing reason in reform, the people 
must regain control of their government. When 
the awakened majority in a community finds it¬ 
self deprived of its right to the expression of its 
will through government, it turns to some other 
method for establishing its authority and gain¬ 
ing its end. This is history. 

By slow process, but by sure, the right of the 
people to ride in the United States has been re¬ 
stricted, hindered and robbed of its effectiveness. 
It remains a constitutional right, but, in many 
instances it has been suspended or superceded by 
extra-constitutional causes. Machinery con¬ 
trived in the early years of national existence for 
the purpose of ensuring popular control has been 
prostituted to the service of privilege. Political 
parties that originated with the people have 
passed into the possession of an alliance between 
business and professional politicians. The ac- 
38 


POWER TO THE PEOPLE 


cumulation of wealth in the hands of a few imen 
has transferred the scepter of sovereign power 
from the voter to the vote-buyer, and the seat of 
authority from the ballot-box to the board of di¬ 
rectors and the boss. The sign of the dollar 
rather than the sign of the cross has been stamp¬ 
ing the seal of veto or approval upon many of 
the country’s policies. 

It is true there has been much accomplished in 
the last few years to remedy this condition. Ev¬ 
en as I write the movement for a restoration of 
power to the people grows in impetus and counts 
new victories; but the revolution is not complete, 
and it is essential for a clear understanding of the 
crisis through which we are passing to include in 
this book a review of the conditions that have 
made political revolution necessary, and a de¬ 
scription of the means by which the people are 
regaining their control of government. 

Plutocracy, the rule of the moneyed few, is bi¬ 
partisan. In its eyes the virtue of a political 
party consists in submission. It believes in par¬ 
ty government only because, hitherto, it has con¬ 
trolled both the dominant parties, and, by keep¬ 
ing the people divided on false issues, has 
39 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


achieved its ends through the success of either. 
It cares little who may be the nominee so long as 
it is left in possession of the machinery. Indeed, 
if it has any preference in figure-heads, it prefers 
the man who can appeal to the people, conscious 
that it has always been able to appeal to the boss¬ 
es with certainty of hearing and respectful re¬ 
sponse. 

And this is the heart of the matter. For 
years the popular franchise has been the object 
of exploitation by those great interests having 
selfish ends to serve. Controlling the machinery 
of legislation and government, plutocracy has 
let the people vote while it made the laws. The 
“invisible government” has been the real power; 
the visible government merely the means to 
achieve its end. 

Hence the need for a new party, in which the 
people will have unhindered control. Democra¬ 
cy and plutocracy cannot be successfully yoked 
beneath one party emblem. They are antagon¬ 
istic forces; they have opposing aims, and they 
work by utterly diverse methods. Despite the 
presence of certain able, honest and progressively 
minded men in both old parties, there is ample 
40 


POWER TO THE PEOPLE 

evidence that they are still largely infected by 
the reactionary element. 

The Democratic party, in the enjoyment of a 
great victory, is exposed to greater peril from 
the plotting of reactionary and anti-social inter¬ 
ests, from the menace of special privilege and the 
ambition of professional politicians, than any 
other political organization. It represents pow¬ 
er; it is the immediate instrument of legislative 
and administrative achievement. Plutocracy 
seeks power. It is desperately in need of power. 
It is on the defensive, and, with its back against 
the wall, it is prepared to resort to any measures 
in order to retain its grip upon the people’s gov¬ 
ernment. Democratic success will attract to the 
dominant party all the agents of privilege. This 
its danger. It is against this peril that men like 
President Wilson will be compelled to watch 
with unflagging vigilance and to fight with un¬ 
yielding courage. Democracy has yet to prove 
itself a fit instrument for the working of the peo¬ 
ple’s will. 

The Republican party is much like a business 
enterprise that has gone into bankruptcy. It 
will take time, energy and much money to reha- 


41 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


bilitate it, and to put it in working order. But 
the Democratic party is a going concern. Pluto¬ 
cracy has representatives holding positions of im¬ 
portance within its organization. Through 
these men, either it will gain control of the 
party, or it will force a disruption similar to that 
which brought about Republican overthrow. 

The Progressive party alone stands a free, 
untrammelled instrument of the people’s will, 
and, realizing the causes that have led to the pros ¬ 
titution and paralysis of the older parties, it 
places the strongest emphasis upon the vital im¬ 
portance of popular control. Through it the 
people may regain possession of the machinery 
of government at Washington and in the State 
legislatures. To this end the party appeals to 
the Nation on the broadest possible basis; it at¬ 
tacks no class; it obliterates sectionalism; it re¬ 
fuses to recognize sex distinction in the rights of 
citizenship. It is the clean, free instrument of 
all the people—of honest business, big and little; 
of the farmer and the wage-earner; of every lib¬ 
erty-loving man and woman. 

And, in order to establish the people in con¬ 
trol of government; in order to drive the pro- 
42 


POWER TO THE PEOPLE 


fessional politicians out of business, and dishon¬ 
est business out of politics, the Progressive move¬ 
ment advocates two great political reforms:— 
Direct representation and direct legislation. Un¬ 
der the former general grouping are included 
direct primaries and popular election for all elec¬ 
tive offices—municipal, State and national—the 
short ballot and the recall; under the latter 
grouping are included the initiative and referen¬ 
dum. Each of these specific measures of reform 
will be dealt with fully in subsequent chapters. 

The Progressive movement is often charged 
with seeking to subvert representative govern¬ 
ment and the constitution. Every political boss; 
every dishonest business man; every grafter and 
privilege-seeker; every professional politician is 
a noisy defender of “representative government 
and the constitution.” 

I do not mean that all who defend the old 
institutions and who oppose new methods in poli¬ 
tics and amendments of the constitution are of 
these classes. There are sincere and earnest men 
who tremble lest the foundations of the Repub¬ 
lic may be shaken by the changes that are pro¬ 
posed. In all ages such men have lived and 
43 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


feared. They cling inherently to what is estab¬ 
lished; they dislike new things; they regard the 
people with distrust. It is a survival of those 
days when a ruling class was a recognized and 
lawfully constituted factor in the body politic; 
when men delegated governmental power to 
those, who, because of birth or fortune, were con¬ 
sidered superior to the mass. The nearest ap¬ 
proach to democracy they are willing to view 
with equanimity is government of the people, for 
the people by a few of the people. 

But these sincere and earnest men are in an 
almost negligible minority. The force and sub¬ 
stance of opposition to popular control of gov¬ 
ernment originates from those classes that are in¬ 
terested in maintaining the intimate relation be¬ 
tween the visible and the invisible government. 
They have devised ways by which our system 
of law-making and administration may be di¬ 
verted from its original intent as an instrument 
of the people’s will and employed to serve the 
purposes of privilege. We have had examples 
of the evil that grows out of this condition in the 
case of men who represented a great State or a 
Congressional district, nominally, and a great 
44 


POWER TO THE PEOPLE 


moneyed interest actually. The latter was the 
more profitable agency, but only so because of 
the possibility of its joint tenure with the former, 
Naturally a system of government which per¬ 
mits such advantageous manipulation is sacred 
in the eyes of these gentlemen, and he who would 
lay hands upon it an enemy patriotically and 
righteously to be denounced. 

And this is the kind of representative govern¬ 
ment that is attacked by the Progressives. Their 
aim is to restore real representative government 
—government that represents the people. 

Our system of government is fundamentally 
right. It is right in its original purpose. In 
mechanism it needs readjustment to meet the 
changed conditions of the time. It was evolved 
in an era when the country was sparsely settled ; 
when there were no railroads, no telegraphs and 
few schools; when newspapers were scarce and 
among the luxuries, and free public libraries and 
magazines were lacking. The average of public 
intelligence—that is of public knowledge of af ■ 
fairs—and the possibility of enlightened public 
sentiment was small. There was no other way to 
ensure wise government than by the selection of 
45 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


men representing the various communities, who 
could come together, discuss the general welfare 
and make laws for all the people. The mass had 
to trust to the superior wisdom and altruistic 
motive of the few, and the mass could trust to 
them in the main, because, at that day, there did 
not exist the sources of corruption and the temp¬ 
tations to grasp at special privileges that have 
grown into being and power with the develop¬ 
ment of the Nation’s industry and the accumula¬ 
tion of wealth by a minority of its people. 

It is true, even in those days, the tendency to 
“embezzle power” was not wholly lacking. The 
foundations were laid for the great superstruc¬ 
ture of privilege and exploitation that has since 
been erected. But this the fathers could not fore¬ 
see. They wrought with marvellous wisdom for 
the time in which they lived, and they left to us 
the task of remodelling, enlarging and develop¬ 
ing the system as changing conditions might re¬ 
quire. 

Today knowledge is widely diffused. Schools, 
colleges and universities have raised the aver¬ 
age of intelligence. Fast mails, telegraphs and 
telephones link every corner of the country and 
46 


POWER TO THE PEOPLE 


narrow the world to small compass. Thousands 
of newspapers keep the people informed; scores 
of magazines carry on an invaluable work of 
education. Free libraries, chautauquas and in¬ 
numerable organizations devoted to the discus¬ 
sion of social, economic and political questions 
provoke study and reflection. One can pick a 
score of men in a few minutes from the passing 
throng on the street as well able to act on issues 
of interest to the people as the average Congress¬ 
man or representative in a state legislature. 

On the other hand private interests are vastly 
powerful and have been often unscrupulous, es¬ 
pecially in their corporate form. They have not 
hesitated to purchase seats in legislative bodies 
for men who will do their bidding; they have 
smothered popular legislation, or inserted the 
obscure “joker” in laws that were drafted osten¬ 
sibly to benefit the people. Conditions have 
arisen in this country which the original framers 
of our system of representative government were 
unable to forsee, and against which they did not 
guard. Surely we would lack the wisdom and 
and the patriotism of the fathers; we would be 
unworthy of the ideals they entrusted to us, did, 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


we fail to face these conditions, and in their 
spirit of courage to devise remedies to meet them. 
The Progressives are not repudiating the work of 
the great men who framed the constitution when 
they propose amendments to it. On the con¬ 
trary they are exalting the spirit of their splen¬ 
did service by refusing to be the slavish idolaters 
of the letter. 

Under the conditions we have reviewed the rise 
of the professional politician is one of the most 
interesting and, at the same time, one of the most 
menacing features of our system. 

Our representative government, with its dele¬ 
gate conventions to nominate candidates, with its 
indirect method of electing United States Sena¬ 
tors, and with its complete committal of legisla¬ 
tive powers to the elected representatives—but¬ 
tressed and fortified in office beyond the reach of 
the people for their statutory terms—although 
originally designed to conserve the best interests 
of the Republic, became a veritable incubator of 
a professional political class. 

Other conditions operated to emphasize this 
tendency. The people were largely engrossed in 
business affairs. During the developmental pe- 
48 


POWER TO THE PEOPLE 


riod of American industry opportunities were so 
many and so promising that men neglected the 
duties of citizenship in the pursuit of wealth. 
They were willing to leave the task of govern¬ 
ment to those who had leisure to engage in it, or 
who found in it a profitable occupation. 

Thus there was evolved in every community a 
group of politicians to whom state-craft was a 
business. Having assumed the burden of look¬ 
ing after the affairs of the people, they, perhaps 
not without excuse, sought means by which they 
might obtain for themselves adequate reward for 
this public devotion. Gradually a division of re¬ 
sponsibility was reached—the people did the vot¬ 
ing and private interests did the rewarding. 
Now the fact is votes may be won by promises, 
but certificates of deposit and like substantial 
considerations are only to be gained by service. 
So it came about that the politicians made 
speeches to the people, and gave their services to 
privilege. 

In the course of events, and as a consequence 
of the race to occupy the opportunities that a 
developing country afforded, at last a few of the 
people awoke to the fact that the opportunities 
49 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


were lessening in number and depreciating in 
value. They began to look about, and investiga¬ 
tion disclosed the fact that there had been a 
steady concentration of opportunities in the 
hands of a few men, who were reaping enormous 
rewards and enjoying a monopoly of wealth, se¬ 
curely ensconced behind a wall of special privi¬ 
lege. 

The discovery was disquieting. The people 
began to think about politics, about the action 
of Congress and State legislatures. They found 
that their assemblies were filled with Wall Street 
Senators and Representatives, with the agents of 
big corporations and railroads. They found at 
Washington and at every state capital an organ¬ 
ized lobby, a Third House, nowhere provided for 
in the constitution, that had usurped their power, 
and that arrogantly blocked the way of the 
people. 

The United States still had “representative 
government,” but it no longer represented the 
people. 

The popular awakening began to manifest 
itself sporadically and spasmodically. Direct 
primaries were among the first fruits. Here and 
50 


POWER TO THE PEOPLE 


there in more or less isolated states reforms were 
inaugurated. Experiments were made in curb¬ 
ing corporate wealth. A new interest was shown 
in the public utility problem. We began to hear 
about the Wisconsin idea and the Iowa idea. 

Then the fire broke out suddenly in Congress. 
Insurgency became rampant. The overthrow of 
Cannonism was the first skirmish. It was the 
preliminary engagement on the national battle¬ 
field in the warfare to make representative gov¬ 
ernment represent. 

To the Populists and the Socialists belongs no 
little credit for having sown the seeds that have 
sprung to maturity in the present movement. 
Derided and scorned, they were pioneers. The 
Populists passed. The Socialists remain like 
storm petrels hovering over the sea of popular, 
unrest. Should the Progressive^party-fail in its 
effort to synthesize the forces making for change 
in a constructive and effective program, the So¬ 
cialists will have to be considered as a most seri¬ 
ous factor in the political future of the Nation. 

In the meantime t he w a rfare goes on. The old 
parties have yielded to the pressure where it was 
strongest. They have grudgingly consented to 
such reforms as the initiative and referendum 
51 










THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


and the recall in certain States, while vigorously 
opposing them in others. But, until the crisis 
came at Chicago in the summer of 1912, there 
was no national party in which all classes could 
unite for the work of social and political read¬ 
justment. 

It was there the forces of reaction and special 
privilege massed themselves to hold the Republi¬ 
can party, with its splendid record of proved 
achievement, against the people. Out of that 
clash of strong men and strong convictions rang 
forth the note of battle—a battle for popular 
rule that was to be as wide as the Nation. The 
upheaval scattered the embers of revolt into 
every town and hamlet in the country. The fire 
spread from Maine to California and from 
Washington to Florida. 

The fight is on. There will be no discharge in 
this warfare. The Progressive party may per¬ 
sist or may pass, as other parties have passed; 
but the Progressive movement cannot be stayed. 
By this or that agency it will live, and grow, and 
triumph. It will restore sovereignty to the peo¬ 
ple, and the people will work out that readjust¬ 
ment of their common life which is essential to 
the Nation’s future welfare. 


52 


CHAPTER IV 
Direct Representation 

By whom should the people’s representatives 
be chosen? 

The question seems to admit of but one answer. 
There is little room for argument on the proposi¬ 
tion that the people’s representatives should be 
chosen by the people themselves. 

And yet such has not been the case in many 
instances, and still is not true in some States, 
nor in the nomination of candidates for the presi¬ 
dency. 

In a great many cases where provision has been 
made for direct nominations the custom of elect¬ 
ing men to a multiplicity of offices at one time 
operates to make ineffective the very machinery 
that is designed to give the people immediate 
control of their representatives. 

Further, the principle of direct representation 
involves more than the right to original choice 
of representatives. Unless the right also exists 
to remove and to replace those officials who fail 
to represent the people faithfully or intelligently, 
53 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


the principle easily becomes vitiated and loses its 
value. 

Thus in the scope of direct representation I 
include the direct nomination and election of all 
elective officials; the short ballot, and the recall. 

In the last few years great progress has been 
made toward establishing the principle of direct 
representation. The fight for popular govern¬ 
ment began on this battle-ground, and one by 
one the States have yielded to the pressure and 
the warfare has extended to the national field, 
where the direct nomination and election of 
United States Senators and the direct nomina¬ 
tion of presidential candidates have been the 
issue. 

The direct election of Senators has been won 
after a prolonged struggle. Time and time 
again the Senate refused to approve a resolution 
submitting a proposed constitutional amendment 
to the states. It was not until Oregon and some 
other states had taken action, providing by a 
somewhat complex method for the closest ap¬ 
proach possible to direct election, and one or two 
notorious instances of alleged corruption in the 
obtaining of seats in the Senate had quickened 
54 


DIRECT REPRESENTATION 


public sentiment into a general clamor for this 
reform, that the Senate surrendered. 

The Sixty-Second Congress adopted the neces¬ 
sary resolution. In order to make the proposed 
amendment effective it required the favorable 
vote of thirty-six state legislatures. Massachu¬ 
setts was the first to ratify it, and Connecticut 
completed the quota in April, 1913. The last 
members of the Senate to be elected by a state 
legislature were James Hamilton Lewis and 
Lawrence Y. Sherman, of Illinois, succeeding 
Shelby Cullom and William Lorimer, who were 
chosen after a long deadlock about two weeks 
before the complete ratification of the constitu¬ 
tional amendment. 

Hereafter the people will elect United States 
Senators as directly as they have always elected 
members of the House, and the political com¬ 
plexion of a state legislature will no longer be 
the factor determining the party allegiance of 
the state’s senatorial representatives. 

The method of choosing Senators by action of 
state legislatures had resulted in grave abuses. 
In cases where the legislature was divided by 
only a narrow margin of party preponderance 
55 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


the temptation to use improper methods for mak¬ 
ing combinations, by which a candidate of a mi¬ 
nority party might win, was too strong to be re¬ 
sisted, and ugly scandals arose. In other cases, 
where there may have been no actual corruption 
through the use of money, patronage and similar 
inducements were employed with demoralizing 
consequences. Frequently a state legislature was 
paralyzed for weeks by a senatorial contest, and 
the business of the state and important legisla¬ 
tion suffered in the delay. 

The direct nomination of Senators is a matter 
of state legislation, and obtains in most states 
where the direct primary system has been 
adopted. In other states nominations are still 
made by convention. 

Some attention must be paid here to the direct 
primary plan. Notwithstanding the fact that it 
has been widely adopted in recent years there are 
still not a few states which retain the convention 
system, or have a primary system that is inade¬ 
quate. 

The convention system was based upon the 
theory that there is superior wisdom in delegated 
assemblies. That theory no longer applies to 
56 


DIRECT REPRESENTATION 

politics, and the system itself has become the con¬ 
venient tool of bosses, machines and special in¬ 
terests. Committees on credentials and resolu¬ 
tions do most of the work in conventions; a com¬ 
pact organization, with a chairman trained in 
tactics and indifferent to criticism or protest, can 
turn a convention into a body of subservient pup¬ 
pets, or can create a majority, where none ex 
isted, that will run rough-shod over the will of 
the people. The term “steam-roller” grew out of 
the convention system as a picturesque descrip¬ 
tion of the ruthless methods employed by bosses 
and machines. The Republican convention of 
1912 is one of the most conspicuous illustrations 
of this evil in political history, and furnished a 
tremendous impetus to the demand for direct pri¬ 
maries. 

The direct primary places in the hands of the 
people the right and the power to name their 
candidates for office. It greatly lessens the peril 
of boss rule and strikes a crushing blow at the 
alliance between professional politics and privi¬ 
lege. Owing to the fact that the direct primary 
has been a more or less sporadic reform, assum¬ 
ing the shape that local needs or local prejudices 
57 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


dictated, there exists today a perplexing 
and complicating diversity in its employ¬ 
ment throughout the country. 

The fundamental principles generally recog¬ 
nized are provision by statute for the nomination 
of candidates for office at elections held under 
state control and at state expense. The plan was 
first tried in Minneapolis fourteen years ago. Its 
successful operation in the city led to its adoption 
by the state, and since that time many other 
states have followed Minnesota’s example. Al¬ 
ways the reform has been won over the protest 
and against the opposition of the professional 
politicians and their allied interests. In too 
many instances they have succeeded in so modify¬ 
ing the primary legislation as to rob it of its 
value. 

A thorough review of the various types of pri¬ 
maries in use throughout the country would re¬ 
quire a book devoted to this one theme. I can 
give under a general grouping merely an indica¬ 
tion of the diversity that exists. 

In a few instances the indirect primary is still 
employed. By this method the voters ballot for 
delegates to conventions at which candidates are 
58 


DIRECT REPRESENTATION 


nominated. This plan is a poor makeshift for 
popular control and subject to grave abuses. 
The optional direct primary is another weak and 
even vicious form of the plan. It leaves the party 
leaders free to choose between the method of di¬ 
rect nomination and the convention system. The 
dominant faction in the party can select which¬ 
ever method suits its own purpose better. In 
some cases the party choosing to nominate by 
primary is required to bear the expense of the 
election. Funds for this purpose are usually 
raised by a pro rata assessment of the candidates, 
a condition that imposes a hardship on the man 
of small means, and makes his candidacy depend¬ 
ent upon financial help that carries with it an im¬ 
plied obligation. 

As a matter of fact the optional primary is 
never used where the convention plan suits bet¬ 
ter the ends of the party machine. The system 
prevailed for years in Kentucky, a state that has 
been boss-ridden and cursed by partisan and ma¬ 
chine politics of the most vicious type. 

In order to be effective the direct primary must 
be compulsory. Parties must not be allowed the 
opportunity to evade the right of the people to 
nominate directly. 


59 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


Another important variation of the direct pri¬ 
mary affects the liberty of the voter to select 
candidates. In some cases what is called a 
“closed” primary obtains. In this the voter is 
allowed to vote only for the candidates of that 
party with which he affiliated at the last election. 
The “open” primary permits him to vote for the 
candidates of any party. 

The argument urged for the “closed” party is 
the danger that voters in one political party may 
deliberately exercise their franchise for a candi¬ 
date of an opposing party in order to ensure the 
nomination of a weak opponent. Against this 
argument is urged the injustice of compelling a 
primary voter to restrict his franchise to candi¬ 
dates of a party with which he affiliated at the 
prior election, but which, under changed condi¬ 
tions, may have forfeited his confidence. Fur¬ 
thermore the growing class of independent vot¬ 
ers is excluded from participation in the “closed” 
primary, and this class often constitutes the most 
intelligent element in a community. Another 
objection lies in the fact that insistence upon a 
declaration of party affiliation violates the spirit 
of the secret ballot. 


60 


DIRECT REPRESENTATION 


But one of the most vicious direct primary 
vagaries is that which requires the candidates on 
a party ticket to make oath that they affiliated 
with the party from which they are now seeking 
nomination at the prior election. This provision 
is designed by the professional politicians to pre¬ 
vent any form of combination or any escape from 
the rigidity of party lines. It is a barrier to inde¬ 
pendence in politics and to the best interests of 
good citizenship. The direct primary law adopt¬ 
ed by Kentucky in 1912 is framed after this 
fashion, and has already proved its value as au 
adjunct to the political machine. 

Students of direct primary legislation, from 
the standpoint of good government, insist that 
essential features of a satisfactory system include 
provisions that it must be compulsory, held at 
the expense of the State, open to both voters and 
candidates, under strict regulation and protected 
by comprehensive laws against corrupt practices. 
In addition to this the State of Oregon provides 
for publicity as to the character and views of 
candidates through a pamphlet published under 
the state’s authority. 

Wisconsin is generally credited with having a 
61 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


primary law that approaches the model. It dif¬ 
fers from that in other states by providing for 
preferential voting, so that each nominee is en¬ 
sured a majority of the votes cast rather than a 
plurality. It was adopted in Wisconsin in order 
to overcome tactics employed by the bosses. 
The political machines had discovered that by in¬ 
ducing a large number of anti-machine candi¬ 
dates to enter the field they could so split up the 
opposition vote as to make certain of nominating 
their own candidates. 

By the preferential plan each voter is allowed 
to indicate his first and second choice. Thus the 
anti-machine voters may split on their first choice 
and mass on their second choice. Unless the ma¬ 
chine candidate can obtain a majority of all votes 
cast he will be defeated by the second choice 
votes of his opponents. 

The so-called presidential preference primary 
is an extension of the direct primary system to 
the nomination of candidates for the presidency. 
Its difference from the method used in choosing 
nominees for lower offices is indicated by the 
word “preference.” The voters, instead of di¬ 
rectly nominating a candidate for President, ex- 
62 


DIRECT REPRESENTATION 


press their preference, or, practically, instruct 
the delegates chosen to the national convention 
of their party. These instructions differ from 
those that are given at conventions in the fact 
that they are the direct expression of the people 
made at the polls by ballot. The effectiveness 
of the plan depends upon the loyalty of the dele¬ 
gates to the will of the voters, but there is little 
doubt that this loyalty will be shown where the 
provisions for the primary are such as to leave 
no excuse for evading the verdict at the polls. 

The plan was first adopted in Oregon, where 
the People’s Power League has been so forceful 
a factor in devising and promoting the means for 
restoring to the people the right to rule. It was 
proposed by initiative petition and approved by 
the electorate of the State in 1910. California, 
Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, South 
Dakota and Wisconsin followed Oregon’s ex¬ 
ample in 1911. Other States have since taken 
similar action. 

The Oregon law provides that at the regular 
primary for state officers, held in a presidential 
year, a petition of one per cent of the party vote 
may place upon the ballot as nominees of the 
party: 


63 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


The names of one person each for President 
and Vice-President of the United States. 

The names of persons as nominees for dele¬ 
gates to the national party convention. 

The names of nominees for presidential elect¬ 
ors. 

Of course there may be as many such petitions 
as there are interested persons in each party of 
sufficient number who have a candidate to pro¬ 
pose. 

A plurality vote determines the party choice 
for President, Vice-President, delegates and 
electors. The State pays the expenses of dele¬ 
gates not to exceed $200 each. Arguments for 
or against presidential candidates may be print¬ 
ed in the State primary publicity pamphlet at 
$100 a page. 

The recall is another instrument by which the 
people are enabled to control their representa¬ 
tives. In simple words it means that those who 
elect to office have also the right to dismiss from 
office, and to substitute some other representa¬ 
tive. In operation it requires that a petition 
.signed by a specified per cent of the number of 
voters participating in the last prior election and 
61 


DIRECT REPRESENTATION 


preferring charges against the official whom it is 
desired to recall, shall be filed with the constitut¬ 
ed authority. It is then mandatory to hold an 
election within a certain period, fixed by law, un¬ 
less the official involved resigns. At such elec¬ 
tion this official has the right to be a candidate, 
and the people may nominate whom they please 
to oppose him. If an opponent is elected the re¬ 
call has accomplished the purpose. 

The recall originated as an adjunct to muni¬ 
cipal government, Los Angeles claiming the 
honor of pioneer in 1903. Since then it has been 
adopted by many cities. It is an almost invar¬ 
iable feature of the commission plan of govern¬ 
ment, now obtaining in over 250 cities. A num¬ 
ber of states have made it part of their constitu¬ 
tions, applying it to all state officers, with an in¬ 
creasing tendency to include the judiciary, and 
appointive as well as elective officers. 

The percentage of signatures required to a 
recall petition varies from a minimum of 15 per 
cent to a maximum of 35 per cent. The latter 
is considered too high to be effective, and 25 per 
cent is generally accepted as a safe and reason¬ 
able proportion. 


05 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


When the great number of officials, municipal, 
and state, now under the shadow of the recall is 
considered, it is remarkable how little use of the 
weapon has been made. It seems to act very 
much as the strap or birch in the school room, 
that may lie on the shelf as a silent warning and 
admonition, but is seldom employed by the wise 
and capable teacher. The inclination of the of¬ 
ficial, who knows the people have power to deal 
with him directly, is to attend to his duties and 
give responsive ear to the popular will. 

Recall legislation provides for a sufficient 
lapse of time between the filing of a petition and 
the holding of an election to prevent snap action 
being taken. The danger of the so-called emo¬ 
tional mob is a fiction conceived by those who 
have reason to dislike any increase in the power 
of the people. 

The short ballot remains to be considered 
briefly as a means to obtain better representa¬ 
tion. It is advocated on the theory that it is 
better to elect a few men intelligently than a 
multitude unintelligently. It contemplates the 
reduction of the number of elective officers to a 
minimum, and the placing of the appointive 
66 


DIRECT REPRESENTATION 


power in the hands of the deliberately chosen 
representatives of the people. By men like 
Theodore Roosevelt and President Wilson it is 
regarded as a fundamental reform in our repre¬ 
sentative system. It marks a reaction against 
that blundering and blind form of democracy 
which requires the people to elect every officer 
from pound-keeper to President, and which re¬ 
sults in a ballot of enormous proportions con¬ 
taining names enough to make a small city direc¬ 
tory. 

When the people are required to select from 
twenty to a hundred men from a list of several 
hundreds, as is frequently the case, intelligent 
voting becomes impossible. The average citi¬ 
zen cannot be informed as to the character and 
qualifications of all the candidates in such an ag¬ 
gregation. He is familiar, perhaps, with the 
leading candidates on several tickets. He picks 
a good figure-head and votes the rest of the tick¬ 
et blindly. Thus the boss and the machine are 
encouraged to nominate respectable heads for 
the party tickets, and to bury tools, made up of 
mediocrities and worse, in the ruck. 

This type of ballot should be condemned as a 
violation of the anti-lottery laws. It puts a 
67 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


premium on ignorance, and heavily discounts 
the better voting element of the community. 
The short ballot, presenting comparatively few 
names to the voter, affords opportunity for in¬ 
telligent choice, and eliminates the woodpile in 
which the proverbial nigger has been wont to 
hide. 

Briefly stated the principles of the short bal¬ 
lot are: 

First, that only those offices should be elective 
which are important enough to attract public at¬ 
tention. 

Second, that very few offices should be filled 
by election at any one time. 

Owing to the increased importance of the ap¬ 
pointive power under this plan it is important 
that some form of civil service should be com¬ 
bined with it. 

The short ballot has its best exemplification 
in the commission plan of government for cities. 
In a later chapter dealing with the application of 
Progressive principles to municipal affairs more 
will be said about this vital factor in promoting 
the kind of representative government that real¬ 
ly represents. 

The Progressive movement promises to be a 
68 


DIRECT REPRESENTATION 


tremendous impetus toward the spread of all 
these measures for putting new life into our re¬ 
presentative system. Thus far,, as we noted, 
the reforms in this particular field have been 
sporadic, and vary in effectiveness in proportion 
to the intelligence and strength of the public 
opinion that gave them impulse. There has 
been no centralized effort to standardize direct 
primary legislation, for example. Hence chaos 
exists, and in many states the primaries are so 
poorly devised and so loaded with “jokers” that 
they fall far short of serving their purpose. 
Nationally the Democratic and Republican par¬ 
ties have taken no stand on these issues. In one 
state the Democrats will be radically progres¬ 
sive, in another intensely conservative; the same 
is true of the Republicans. 

But the Progressive party has one policy for 
all states on such questions, and it maintains a 
bureau devoted to the work of drafting model 
legislation for the enactment of these reforms 
It is standardizing popular government, a ser¬ 
vice greatly needed by the people, who, until 
now, have been groping their way, stumbling 
toward the goal, often misled by prejudiced ad¬ 
visers and betrayed by false friends. 

69 


CHAPTER V 
Direct Legislation 

Direct legislation is the inclusive term for the 
initiative and referendum. It is the principle 
of conferring upon the people the power to pro¬ 
pose and enact legislation independently of a 
representative body, and to pass upon legislation 
which has been enacted by their representatives. 

This principle is as old as the idea of democra¬ 
cy. It has its roots in the earliest history of 
popular institutions. In ancient Greece and 
Rome the voting class enjoyed the right of di¬ 
rect legislation. The New England town meet¬ 
ing is often instanced as another example of law¬ 
making directly by the people. 

But we are less concerned with these historic 
precedents than we are with the modern move¬ 
ment in which the principle has been readjusted 
to our system of government so as to supple¬ 
ment its representative character. 

By the initiative is meant the right of the peo¬ 
ple to propose or initiate legislation and to pass 
it by direct vote. By the referendum is meant 
70 


DIRECT LEGISLATION 


the right of the people to require that any meas ¬ 
ure enacted by their representatives shall be sub¬ 
mitted to their approval before becoming law. 

Thus the initiative is a method by which the 
people may obtain legislation which their repre¬ 
sentatives refuse or neglect to consider or enact, 
while the referendum is a method by which they 
may veto the legislation in which they think their 
representatives have acted unwisely or prejudi¬ 
cially to the general welfare. 

It is interesting to note in this connection that 
the referendum has held a place in our process of 
constitution making from the beginning. The 
case of Massachusetts may be cited as an ex¬ 
ample. 

In 1777 the General Assembly of Massachu¬ 
setts drafted a constitution and submitted it to 
popular vote. This was a true referendum or 
reference to the people. The vote was taken in 
1778, and by a ratio of 5 to 1 the people rejected 
the draft. A year later the Assembly referred 
to the people a question as to whether a consti¬ 
tutional convention should be called. The vote 
was affirmative; the convention was called and a 
constitution drafted. It was submitted to a 
71 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


third popular vote, and on this occasion the peo¬ 
ple approved. 

The right of the people to act directly in the 
framing of their state constitutions was thus es¬ 
tablished in the very infancy of the Nation, and 
is recognized today in every state in the Union 
with the exception of Delaware. It seems a 
reasonable deduction that if we can trust the peo¬ 
ple to pass directly upon their fundamental law 
they may be trusted as safely to pass upon statu¬ 
tory law. It is the extension of this principle, 
already conceded in the making of constitutions, 
to the making of statutes that is advocated by the 
proponents of direct legislation. 

The initiative and referendum made their first 
modern appearance as instruments of populai 
rule in statutory legislation in Switzerland, one 
of Europe’s three republics. The parallel be¬ 
tween conditions in the little old-world mountain 
country that led up to the adoption of these 
methods, and those that have promoted their 
adoption in America, is striking. 

Prof. Frank Parsons, in his book “The City 
for the People,” has given an interesting sketch 
of the Swiss situation prior to and after the em* 
72 


DIRECT LEGISLATION 

ployment of direct legislation. Following the 
confederation of the twenty-two cantons, or 
states, that ended an era of civil strife in 1848, 
there came a time of industrial development 
largely marked by the building of railroads. An 
alliance of the railroads, the politicians, the 
land monopolists and aristocrats of the con¬ 
federacy cruelly exploited the people. Graft 
and franchise grabbing became so general and so 
bold that popular indignation was deeply 
stirred. When the legislature of Neuchatei 
granted a heavy subsidy to a railroad the end of 
popular patience was reached. The people be¬ 
gan to seek a remedy for misrepresentative gov¬ 
ernment. The referendum was practised in a 
few of the smaller forest cantons, and it was 
seized upon as the best means of counteraction 
for a legislature controlled by the privileged in¬ 
terests. The direct legislation movement spread 
rapidly; beginning in 1863 with the adoption of 
the initiative and referendum by six of the larg¬ 
est cantons, by 1874 the referendum had been 
adopted by the Federal government and in 1891 
the initiative was added. Today both measures 
are used in every Swiss city, in most of the com- 
73 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


mimes and in twenty-one out of twenty-two can¬ 
tons. 

The rapid industrial development that fol¬ 
lowed our own civil war, and that led to such in¬ 
timate and dangerous relations between corpor¬ 
ate business and government, has been the im¬ 
pulse back of the movement for direct legisla¬ 
tion in this country. 

Herr Carl Burkli, of Zurich, known in Swit¬ 
zerland as the “father of the referendum” is thus 
quoted by Prof. Parsons: 

“The masses of the citizens of Switzerland 
found it necessary to revolt against their pluto¬ 
cracy and the corrupt politicians who were ex¬ 
ploiting their country through the representa¬ 
tive system.The plutocratic government 

and the Grand Council of Zurich, which had con¬ 
nived with the private banks and railroads, were 
pulled down in one great voting swoop. The 
people had grown tired of being beheaded by the 
office-holders after every election. And politi¬ 
cians and privileged classes have ever since been 
going down before these instruments in the 
hands of the people.” 

J. W. Sullivan, an American writer who stud- 

74 



DIRECT LEGISLATION 


ied Swiss conditions on the ground, has this to 
say about the results of the referendum in Zu¬ 
rich: 

“The Zurich legislature knows nothing of 
bribery. It never sees a lobbyist. There are no 
vestiges remaining of the public extravagance, 
the confusion of laws, the partisan feeling, the 
personal campaigns, characteristic of represen¬ 
tative government.When men of 

Zurich, now but middle-aged, were young, its 
legislature practised vices similar to those of 
American legislatures; the cantons supported 
many idling functionaries, and the citizens were 
ordinarily but voting machines, registering the 

wills of the political bosses.Today there is 

not a sinecure public office in Zurich; the popu¬ 
lar vote has cut down the number of officials to 

the minimum, and their pay also.There 

are no officials with high salaries.There 

is no one man power in Switzerland.No 

machine politician lives by spoils.The 

referendum has proved destructive to class law 
and class privilege.” 

Even allowing a little for over-exuberance in 
the enthusiasm of Mr. Sullivan, his testimony as 
75 








THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


to the effect of direct legislation upon conditions 
in Switzerland may be accepted as strong en¬ 
couragement for those who see in it great pos¬ 
sibilities of betterment in American political life. 

The initiative and referendum were first 
adopted in this country by South Dakota in 
1898. This being our earliest experiment in 
such legislation the measures, not unnaturally, 
show some of the defects due to over caution and 
incomplete trust in the wisdom of the people. 

For example no provision is made for the con¬ 
stitutional initiative. That is to say the people 
are restricted to initiating laws of a statutory 
character. Further, all laws so proposed must 
be submitted first to the legislature for action. 
In the case of its failure or refusal to enact a law 
so submitted the constitution requires that it 
mqst be referred automatically to the people at 
the ensuing general election. There is no 
means, however, by which the legislature can be 
compelled to observe this constitutional require¬ 
ment. 

Again an emergency clause in the referendum 
provision is so drawn as to limit the power of the 
people. A mere majority of the legislature may 
76 


DIRECT LEGISLATION 


tack an emergency clause to any enacted bill 
by which it is removed from the scope of the re¬ 
ferendum provision and becomes law immediate¬ 
ly. Over 40 per cent of the laws passed in South 
Dakota have this clause attached. The people, 
therefore, enjoy the initiative and referendum 
only at the discretion of their representatives, a 
fact that robs them of much of their real value. 

Even under these heavy handicaps the initia¬ 
tive and referendum have proved a great ser¬ 
vice to the state. They have put the powerful 
railroad lobby out of business. Laws providing 
for the physical valuation of railroads, the re¬ 
duction of express charges, the increase in the 
assessment of railroad properties for taxation 
and the abolition of passes have been enacted. 
It is generally admitted these measures would 
have had small chance under the old sys f em 
where the legislature was free from any direct 
check at the hands of the people. 

I have cited South Dakota as an example be¬ 
cause it furnishes illustrations of defects in direct 
legislation that are deserving of note, and at the 
same time affords testimony to the value of the 
initiative and referendum, even in imperfect 
form. 


77 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


Utah provides another instance of a peril to be 
avoided. In 1900 the people adopted a consti¬ 
tutional amendment providing for the initiative 
and referendum. The vote was small. Out of 
a total of 92,980 votes polled at the election only 
a few over 27,000 were cast on the amendment. 
It was given nearly 12,000 majority; but the 
amendment merely established the general prin¬ 
ciple and left the details to be enacted by the leg¬ 
islature. From that day to this the people’s re¬ 
presentatives have refused to pass the necessary 
law to make the principle operative, basing their 
refusal upon the light vote by which it was ap¬ 
proved. 

A constitutional amendment for direct legis¬ 
lation should be specific in the provision for all 
the machinery necessary to make it effective. It 
is not safe to leave the details to legislatures. 

Possibly Oregon is most often quoted as an 
example of a state in which the initiative and re¬ 
ferendum have played an important role in leg¬ 
islation. These measures were adopted by Ore¬ 
gon in 1902. They have proved to be the very 
foundation of progress in the state. The people 
have used them freely and with remarkable wis- 
78 


DIRECT LEGISLATION 


dom. The initiative is direct; that is to say the 
people are not required to submit laws first to 
the legislature before acting upon them them¬ 
selves. It applies to constitutional amendments 
as well as to statutory legislation. It is opera¬ 
tive upon an eight per cent petition. 

The referendum is operative upon a five per 
cent petition, but may be inhibited by an emer ¬ 
gency clause attached on majority vote of the 
legislature. This is the same weakness that we 
noted in the South Dakota law. 

An excellent feature of the Oregon law that 
has since been copied by other states, South Da¬ 
kota among the number, is the provision for pub¬ 
licity pamphlets containing the measures to be 
voted upon by the people, and to be mailed di¬ 
rectly to each voter in the state by the Secretary 
of State. Arguments for and against the mea¬ 
sures may be inserted by private citizens or or 
ganizations upon payment of the proportional 
cost per page for the space occupied. This “vo¬ 
ter’s text book” is the chief reason why the ini¬ 
tiative and referendum have proved in Oregon 
to be so useful an expression of intelligent citi¬ 
zenship. 


79 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


It is proposed to remove the one weakness 
noted in the Oregon law by amending it to pro- 
vide that an emergency clause may be attached 
to a bill only upon a two-third vote of the legis¬ 
lature, and that in such event it will not inhibit 
the right of referendum, but will merely make 
the measure effective until such time as the peo¬ 
ple decide against it. 

Because of the prominent part played by the 
initiative and referendum in Oregon that state 
has drawn much of the fire of those who oppose 
direct legislation. The testimony of two men, 
representing opposing parties, but exceptionally 
fitted to judge, is worthy of quotation. 

Former Senator Jonathan Bourne, a Repub¬ 
lican, says: 

“Results obtained under direct legislation in 
Oregon compare so favorably with the work of 
a legislative assembly that an attempt to repeal 
the initiative and referendum would be defeated 
overwhelmingly. No effort has ever been made 

.The results show that the people 

have exercised discriminating judgment.” 

Senator George A. Chamberlain, a Democrat, 
says: 

30 



DIRECT LEGISLATION 


“The people of this state are entirely satisfied 

with this amendment.I think you will 

find that opposition to the Oregon system finds 
its inspiration in the corrupt machine politicians 
and in those who believe that the liberties of the 
citizen should be subordinated to the so-called 
rights of property.” 

It is interesting to note some of the measures 
that have been enacted by direct legislation in 
Oregon. One of the first was a direct primary 
law in 1904. In 1906 the people approved an 
anti-pass bill, an amendment permitting cities to 
enact and amend their own charters, and an 
amendment for direct legislation on all local and 
municipal laws. In 1908 they provided for the 
direct election of United States Senators by an 
ingenious plan pledging candidates for the leg¬ 
islature to support the choice of the people ir¬ 
respective of party, they put a limitation on the 
amount and use of money to be employed in elec¬ 
tion campaigns, and adopted the recall and pro¬ 
portional representation. In 1910 a home rule 
bill for cities was carried, and employers’ liabil¬ 
ity, presidential primary and good roads meas¬ 
ures were among those to obtain majorities. In 
81 



THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


1912 a woman suffrage amendment was adopted, 
after having been defeated in three prior elec¬ 
tions. Many other bills have been enacted and 
many rejected, but these are cited as illustrative 
of the kind of legislation favored by the people. 

Doubtless years of costly agitation and fre¬ 
quent disappointment would have been required 
to obtain their enactment under the old system. 

There is instruction in noting a few of the 
measures that the people have refused to ap¬ 
prove. A single tax amendment was defeated 
in 1908 and again in 1912. An amendment in¬ 
creasing the salaries of legislators was buried be¬ 
neath 50,000 majority. In 1910 prohibition was 
rejected by 17,000 majority. An amendment 
providing for the building of railroads by the 
state and another abolishing capital punishment 
met with like fate. 

It will be seen that the people of Oregon, while 
progressive in certain directions, are not hastily 
radical. 

Before passing from this review of direct leg¬ 
islation, let me cite an interesting example from 
the experience of Montana. Concerning poli¬ 
tics in this state Dr. W. C. Eggleston, at one 

82 


DIRECT LEGISLATION 


time editor of the Helena Independent, writes to 
Equity, an invaluable monthly publication de¬ 
voted to popular government: 

“I have lived and taken an active interest in 
the politics of eight states, and I have known 
personally every member of ten legislatures in 
different states. It is my deliberate opinion that 
a Montana legislature of 100 members could sit 
blindfolded in a political poker game and skin 
an average Illinois legislature down to a neck¬ 
tie and a pair of socks. In 1907 I reported both 
houses of the Montana legislature, and got so 
cross-eyed watching the bunch that I had to walk 
sideways to find my way home. In an assembly 
of Montana legislators the most corrupt and de¬ 
generate gas meter becomes an emblem of puri¬ 
ty, honor and respectability.” 

Montana adopted the initiative and referen¬ 
dum in 1906, but under such unsatisfactory con¬ 
ditions that no use was made of the measures un¬ 
til 1912. There is no constitutional initiative, 
and petitions must be signed in each of two-fifths 
of the counties in the state, by eight per cent of 
the voters, in the case of the initiative, and 5 per 
cent in the case of the referendum. This pro- 
83 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


vision has made the obtaining of signatures a 
cumbersome and costly proceeding. 

Rut even under these conditions in 1912 an 
excellent direct primary law, a corrupt practices 
act, a presidential primary law and a measure for 
the direct election of United States Senators 
were submitted and approved by big majorities. 
Thus the people of a notoriously corrupt state 
have obtained fundamental reforms that their 
legislature, controlled by corporate interests, 
could not have been persuaded to grant. As a 
result there is certain to be an improvement in 
future legislatures, and thus direct legislation 
will demonstrate its value as an adjunct to re¬ 
presentative government. 

The use of direct legislation in municipal gov¬ 
ernment will be discussed in the chapter devoted 
to Progressive principles in their application to 
city affairs. 

Equity, the publication referred to earlier in 
this chapter, lists six dangerous “jokers” that 
have been resorted to by those who desired to 
cripple direct legislation. They are: 

1. Limiting the initiative to statute laws and 
prohibiting the voters from proposing and adopt- 
34 


DIRECT LEGISLATION 


ing amendments to the constitution. This 
“joker” is found in South Dakota, Utah, Mon¬ 
tana, Maine, Washington and Idaho. 

2. Requiring an improbable or impossible 
majority to enact or reject measures submitted 
to the voters. 

An example is Oklahoma where a “majority 
of all votes cast in said election” is the provision. 
Although five measures submitted since 1907 
have received large majorities of the “votes cast 
thereon”, none have been enacted owing to this 
provision. Ignorance and indifference are al¬ 
lowed to weigh against interest and intelligence 
in this provision. 

3. Requiring petitions impracticably large, 
or making it needlessly difficult to obtain them. 

Wyoming requires a 25 per cent petition, 
which is almost prohibitive. I have cited the 
difficulties imposed in Montana. Similar diffi¬ 
culties exist in Nebraska. 

4. Framing an emergency clause provision so 
as to allow a legislature to block a referendum at 
its own discretion. 

An emergency clause should require a two- 
thirds majority, and ought to specify the nature 
85 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


of the emergency. It should not forbid the sub¬ 
mission of the measure to the ultimate decision 
of the people, even though providing for its im¬ 
mediate operation. 

5. Fixing an arbitrary limit to the number of 
measures which may be submitted to the people. 

The people are the best judge of how much 
work they can do. Oregon voters have shown 
themselves able to handle intelligently as many 
as thirty-two measures at a single election. 

6. Failing to provide an adequate and effi¬ 
cient method of informing the voters concerning 
the measures submitted to them. 

Direct legislation is successful in the degree in 
which the people are informed. The Oregon 
pamphlet system, already described is the best 
plan yet devised. 

Except in cases of emergency, so declared to 
exist by a two-third majority of the legislators, 
and specified as to nature, all laws passed should 
be suspended from operation for ninety days af¬ 
ter the adjournment of the session. During this 
period the people may prepare and file petitions 
for a referendum on such legislation as they de¬ 
sire to have submitted to them. No limit should 
86 


DIRECT LEGISLATION 


be set to the time for obtaining petitions for the 
initiative. 

Difference of opinion exists among advocates 
of direct legislation as to whether the necessary 
signatures to a petition should be specified by 
per cent or by number. There is a tendency to 
favor the latter plan, in theory, although in prac¬ 
tise the former is the more common. In Maine 
the law requires the fixed number of 10,000 sig¬ 
natures for a referendum petition and 12,000 for 
the initiative. In Oregon the requirement is 
signatures equalling in number 5 per cent of the 
total vote polled at the last prior gubernatorial 
election for the referendum, and 8 per cent for 
the initiative. This is regarded as fair. It ap¬ 
plies, of course, only in state-wide use of direct 
legislation. In municipal use the per centages 
are higher owing to the narrower territory in 
which the signatures are to be obtained. 

The two objections most frequently urged 
against direct legislation by those who oppose it 
are its alleged subversion of representative gov¬ 
ernment and its fancied tendency to encourage 
mob rule. The former objection was dealt with 
in the chapter dealing generally with the ques- 
87 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


tion of popular government. The latter objec¬ 
tion is not very substantial, and calls for little 
comment. 

It is urged only by those who have unworthy 
reasons for fearing the people, or who are tem¬ 
peramentally reactionary. Direct legislation is 
more deliberative than is representative legisla¬ 
tion in a great many instances. More opportu¬ 
nity is given for thorough consideration and dis¬ 
cussion of measures submitted under the initia¬ 
tive and referendum than for the vast majority 
of bills that come before legislative assemblies. 
Everyone is familiar with the manner in which a 
congested calendar is handled in the dying hours 
of a state legislature. Good measures are often 
killed; bad measures, under pressure of a lobby, 
are jammed through; few measures are umder- 
stood by more than a small minority of those who 
vote upon them. Every kind of trick and stra¬ 
tegy is employed to prevent discussion, when the 
interested majority so desires, and to obtain the 
passage of legislation on any other basis than its 
merits. “Deliberative assembly” is too often a 
sad misnomer for a legislative body. 

Mobs are the result of oppression not of 
88 


DIRECT LEGISLATION 


freedom. Passion is the outburst of suppressed 
feeling. The initiative and referendum give the 
people liberty to act in a sane and orderly fash¬ 
ion. They are a check upon precipitate and dis¬ 
orderly action. A man does not break through 
a pane of glass when he may more easily walk 
through an open door, and direct legislation is 
the people’s open door to the things they need. 


89 


CHAPTER VI 

Woman and the Progressive Movement 

In a striking manner the Progressive move¬ 
ment has brought woman into conspicuous place 
as a political factor. It has indeed done more to 
center attention upon her cause than years of 
suffrage agitation. In all conventions, confer¬ 
ences and gatherings of those interested in the 
Progressive programme she has been welcomed, 
both as auditor and speaker. She has been tak^ 
en into the party councils, and has been given a 
position of leadership in no degree less prom¬ 
inent than that of men. Moreover a significant 
fact is that her presence and the promise of her 
larger participation in the duties of citizenship 
and of government have been greeted with great¬ 
er enthusiasm than any other phase of the move¬ 
ment. 

If we look for the psychology of this unusual 
phenomenon in politics we will find ourselves 
getting close to the very heart of the Progressive 
cause. 

During the era in our history that has been 
90 


WOMAN AND THE MOVEMENT 


dominated by the conception of private property 
as the chief treasure of society, the one pearl of 
great price to be cherished, protected and con¬ 
served, man has felt self-competent for the task 
of government. As the bread-winner, the 
wealth-producer and the wealth-acquirer of the 
race he has considered himself the natural guar¬ 
dian of property. Woman, through long expe¬ 
rience an economically dependent sex, has not 
been regarded as necessarily a partner in the 
work of law-making and administration. Man, 
for the sake of retaining his supremacy, and un¬ 
der the illusion that he is the divinely constituted 
overlord and chivalrous squire of his woman¬ 
kind, has kept in his own control the machinery 
of government. It has been his chief aim to see 
that his right of possession was established and 
buttressed, for in possession lay his power, and in 
the opportunity for concession the satisfaction of 
his vanity. 

Take time to study the legislation of a century 
and you will discover that it centers about one 
pre-eminent idea—the sacredness of property. 
Until within the last few years all other consider¬ 
ations were subordinated to this. Every reform 
91 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


aimed at the obtaining of a larger measure of 
human happiness has been forced to face this 
fetish; to make its peace with this mammon god, 
Not that property is without claim in the legisla¬ 
tive arena, or that any sane man would advocate 
its abolition as a private right; but that it has 
held a supreme position, which is now challenged 
in the name of human rights and in the cause of 
race welfare. We are emphasizing anew the al¬ 
most forgotten truth that property is made for 
man, and not man for property. 

It is this attitude toward life and its problems 
that is the profound motive in the movement. 
The change has come gradually, but the consci¬ 
ousness of its arrival has been startlingly sudden 
in the mind of the masses. As yet all who respond 
to it have not analyzed the nature of the change 
or paused to question its cause; but they know 
that they look upon society with a new vision, a 
vision that sees the happiness of women and chil¬ 
dren, the achieving of right human relations and 
the common good as the great goal of civiliza¬ 
tion. 

Men are realizing that their rule has been one¬ 
sided, biased and incomplete. They see that 
92 


WOMAN AND THE MOVEMENT 

they have neglected much in their anxiety to pro¬ 
tect themselves in the endeavor to acquire more. 
In order to conserve the sacredness of property 
and to promote the holy calling of its pursuit 
they have allowed the lives of little children to be 
woven into the fabric of the textile mills, or to be 
blighted by the darkness of the mines; they have 
let women be driven from the hearthstone of the 
home to the factory, the office and the depart¬ 
ment store, because she will work for lesser wag¬ 
es and so make larger profits possible; they have 
given license to the food poisoners; they have 
thrown a bullwark of high protection around 
certain industries while they exploited their la¬ 
bor to the verge of desperation and revolt. 

The family circle has been broken into frag¬ 
ments for the sake of dividends. Into the mak¬ 
ing of wealth, the building up and entrenchment 
of property, have gone the right to be young, 
the right to be happy, the right to love and to 
be loved, the right to regain the lost image of 
God in which man was created. Greed has 
stamped the mark of the beast upon the coun¬ 
tenance of the prosperous, and hunger has 
stamped it upon the faces of the poor. 

93 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


How much we have sacrificed! How little, in 
comparison, have we gained! 

And yet perhaps this is too dark a picture. 
We are not pessimists, but optimists. This much 
we have done in the pursuit of property—we 
have produced, devised and assembled all the 
materials for a happier society. We are emerg¬ 
ing now from the shop era of civilization into the 
conception of the Nation as a home. It is as if 
we had saved and denied and suffered in order 
that we might have the means wherewith to live. 
And now that the time has come to plan the new 
dwelling of the race; to set the house in order; 
to sweep and scrub and to arrange the furniture; 
to hang the pictures on the walls and to fill the 
larder with good things, what more natural than 
that men should turn to women, as they have 
done from the beginning, and say “We need 
you?” 

The task has outgrown man’s unaided doing. 
He realizes that in bringing within reach of all 
the advantages that he has laboriously contrived 
and accumulated, her help will prove of highest 
value. The knowledge, the invention, the mate¬ 
rial acquisition of an age of unparalleled ingenu- 
94 


WOMAN AND THE MOVEMENT 


ity and productivity must be readjusted, dis¬ 
posed and employed so as to free childhood from 
the yoke of industry, restore womanhood to its 
queenly place in the domain of things human, 
and give to the man who toils a larger share in 
the product of his labor and a greater security 
in its enjoyment. 

The home has been slipping away from us; 
in its place we have been given the tenement for 
the poor and the apartment house for the well- 
to-do. It is not a good exchange. We must win 
hack the home. 

The family has been disintegrating as a funda¬ 
mental factor in the social structure. Economic 
pressure has driven mothers and children to toil 
with the fathers and grown brothers; it has de¬ 
terred young men from marriage and forced 
young girls into lives of shame. The extrava¬ 
gance of the social-climber and the demoralizing 
idleness of the social parasite have filled our di¬ 
vorce courts. These are evils in the land, more 
destructive than political graft, more burden¬ 
some than a robber tariff. We must conserve 
the family. 

And for this phase of the new crusade we need 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


the comradeship of women. We want women 
politically free, not with hands tied upon elec¬ 
tion day. That is why the men in the Progres¬ 
sive movement have greeted with enthusiasm the 
declaration for full equal suffrage. The pros¬ 
pect of this splendid reinforcement heartens them 
for the struggle. 

And in this attitude the men of the new party 
give evidence of their sincerity. It is the very 
urgency of the crusade that has quickened the 
desire for woman’s help. It is disappointing that 
some women have failed to see this fact; that 
some, who are prominent in advocacy of the suf¬ 
frage cause, have held aloof from the Progressive 
movement, have even opposed it. To them there 
is but this to say—they do not understand their 
own movement or its vital relation to the prob¬ 
lems of the time; they do not realize how big is 
the cause they espouse, nor how deeply are its 
roots embedded in the subsoil of the race. If 
they did they would know that the moment a 
party was formed in which the welfare of human 
beings, rather than the rights of property, was 
made the supreme object, the inclusion of women 
in its fighting force was inevitable. Any other 
96 


WOMAN AND THE MOVEMENT 


theory places too light a value and too superficial 
a significance upon the role that woman has 
played in shaping the present issues. 

Thus the interest of women in the Progressive 
movement is far broader than that which might 
be represented by the suffrage plank in the plat¬ 
form of the party. This particular plank merely 
forms the link that gives her vital connection with 
the big, human welfare programme to which the 
movement is committed. No doubt other parties 
will follow the example of the Progressives in 
declaring for equal rights in citizenship, but wo¬ 
men will remember that the Progressives were 
first to give preeminent place to issues that made 
their votes significant. 

In the Progressive movement two supremely 
important factors in race happiness are recog¬ 
nized—motherhood and childhood. Politics of 
the past have taken these things for granted. It 
has assumed them as natural constants in the 
problem of society, largely outside the sphere of 
government. They have been left to the care of 
non-political reforms. 

Our awakening to the importance of conserva¬ 
tion began, logically enough, in the process of 

or 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


evolution I have outlined, with an interest in the 
wasting wealth of forests and mines, in the deple¬ 
tion of soil fertility, and such other phases of 
national heedlessness and extravagance as could 
be readily presented in the cold statistics of dol¬ 
lars and cents. But it could not long rest satis¬ 
fied with a determination to save these purely 
material resources from the exploiter. The 
thought of the people being turned toward con¬ 
servation it was inevitable that the human fac¬ 
tors in wealth production should be forced upon 
their attention, and the Progressive movement 
gave voice and definiteness to the demand that 
the terrible waste of life and energy which has 
marked the Nation’s pursuit of riches should be 
ended. 

No phases of this waste are more deplorable 
than those which involve the deterioration of the 
maternal vitality of the race, and the squandering 
, of youth’s promise in the carnival of dividends. 

The Progressive party faced the fact that eco¬ 
nomic necessity has driven into the fields of toil 
thousands of women and children. It listened, 
as no other party had, to the stories of men and 
women whose lives have been devoted to a study 


WOMAN AND THE MOVEMENT 

of this problem. It heard with sympathy, and 
with appreciation of its significance, the report 
of those who knew from long investigation and 
closest intimacy the terrible consequences of this 
development in our social and industrial system. 

To set the women of the country free from the 
chains of toil in order that they may be fit for 
the motherhood of its future citizenship; to break 
in pieces the yoke that galls the tender shoulders 
of the boys and girls—these have become among 
the chief purposes of the movement; and wholly 
apart from the issue of suffrage, the recognition 
of these issues by the party makes an appeal to 
the sympathy and support of every understand¬ 
ing woman that cannot be resisted. 

But, it is also true, that the Progressive move¬ 
ment, in giving to women a coordinate place with 
men in its programme and in its organization, is 
not unconscious of the powerful arguments and 
forces making for political sex equality. I have 
endeavored thus far to show that the welcome to 
women, extended so enthusiastically by the men 
of the Progressive party, was due to their sudden 
sense of need for woman’s political comradeship, 
and that the response of women to the welcome 
99 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


had larger motives than the mere promise of the 
suffrage plank. Let us now devote some con¬ 
sideration to the conditions that, from the femin¬ 
ist standpoint, have given impulse and increas¬ 
ing urge to the equal suffrage movement in the 
last quarter century . 

The industrial changes, which were considered 
in the first chapter, had a most important effect 
upon the life interests and the economic position 
of women. With the tremendous growth of 
manufacturing enterprise that followed the intro¬ 
duction of power machinery there gradually 
passed from the home sphere many of the occu¬ 
pations that had hitherto filled the hands of its 
womankind. The textile and fabric industries 
took over the making of clothes and the knitting 
of socks and stockings. The knitting needles 
followed the spinning wheel into retirement, and 
even the darning needle has had less opportunity 
for use since the day of “guaranteed” hose. 
Bread, made in big bakeries, took the place of 
the kind that mother made, and the rolling pin 
and the bread board ceased to hold a prominent 
position in the kitchen. The carpet sweeper 
drove out the broom and the vacuum cleaner 
100 


WOMAN AND THE MOVEMENT 


drove out the carpet sweeper. Even the weaving 
of rags into rugs was converted from a household 
economy into a profit-making business. In a 
score of other directions socialized production for 
profit displaced home production for use. 

The effect of this revolution differed according 
to the economic circumstances of the women re¬ 
sponding to it. In working class homes it con¬ 
spired with other causes, having similar origin, 
to induce the women to follow their occupations 
out of the household circle into the factory and 
the office. In homes where comfort and plenty 
obtained it left the hands of the women idle; it 
left their minds without sufficient interest. They 
turned to pleasure or to study as a refuge from 
ennui. 

The extravagant excesses of the rich and the 
activities of the prosperous middle-class women 
in social and political fields are largely due to 
the industrial changes that liberated feminine 
energies from household cares. 

The wage-earning women speedily became con¬ 
scious of a handicap in fighting their battles, im¬ 
posed by the restricted citizenship which man had 
decreed for them. Where these toilers are inter- 
101 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


ested in suffrage it is because they feel the need 
for political emancipation in order that they may 
hasten the day of economic betterment. The leis¬ 
ured women, who in clubs and other organiza¬ 
tions took up the study of social and political 
questions, began at once to evolve a social con¬ 
sciousness and an enlightened understanding of 
the problems that affect human welfare. Knowl¬ 
edge craves power; it seeks means of expression. 
Unless this be given it becomes a dangerous 
force, suppressed and explosive. The new 
knowledge and sense of social obligation that 
have come to woman, as a sex, reasonably de¬ 
mands that it be related directly and effectively 
to the work of government, through which only 
can it hope to achieve its aims. 

It is too late in the day to waste argument in 
rebutting the objections raised to woman suf¬ 
frage by the standpat mind of either sex. When 
women were conceded the same educational 
rights as men, the granting of equal rights in 
citizenship became inevitable. Economic evolu¬ 
tion has hastened the consummation. The old 
fashioned mind will continue to argue up to the 
last minute; but it will be useless. It requires 
102 


WOMAN AND THE MOVEMENT 


little daring to venture the prophecy that in a 
decade equal suffrage will be nation-wide. 

But there is one word that should be added. 
The most frequently advanced argument against 
woman suffrage is the old plea that “woman’s 
sphere is the home.” Let us gladly and heartily 
concur. 

Woman’s happiest and most useful sphere is 
the home. There exists no field of effort where 
she can accomplish more, or where her excellen¬ 
ces find more effective setting. The Progressive 
movement is so thoroughly impressed with this 
belief, so wholly devoted to this conception of 
the great work that woman has to do, that it 
urges the extension of the franchise to women in 
order that she may be better equipped to defend 
her home domain. 

We have seen that the home is seriously men¬ 
aced under existing conditions. Without the 
ballot woman has been slowly but surely driven 
from the home, and compelled to submit to cir¬ 
cumstances of competitive toil with men while 
lacking the voice in their control that men enjoy. 
Her children are often neglected in order that 
she may earn bread for them. They lose the 
103 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


maternal care for their moral welfare so that 
the mother may provide for their stomachs. The 
making of the home is delayed until late in the 
life of many a woman. When she enters upon 
the great undertaking for which she has been 
peculiarly adapted by nature, and in which she 
gives her best and richest service to the race, it 
is too often after she has sacrificed health and 
nerve in some exigent industry, and has no long¬ 
er the freshness and vitality of youth to give to 
the bearing and rearing of her children. 

Moreover politics has become in recent years 
a matter most closely affecting the home. In 
many states the school suffrage has been given to 
women on the ground that Per natural interest 
in the welfare of the children entitles her to a 
voice in the management of educational affairs. 

But women are equally concerned for the 
health of their children, that may be menaced in 
cities by impure milk, contaminated water sup¬ 
ply, defective sewerage, unregulated bakeries 
and slaughter houses and a dozen other factors 
in municipal housekeeping. In the state and na¬ 
tion food poisoners threaten the safety of the 
children. These are conditions in which women 


104 


WOMAN AND THE MOVEMENT 


have surely as great a right to exercise direct 
political control as in those affecting the schools. 

Child-labor and white slavery have become 
acutely important state and national issues that 
bear intimately upon the home life and woman’s 
interest in it. Yet lacking the ballot she is han¬ 
dicapped in combatting the evils they represent. 

Is the tariff purely a business question? Ask 
the woman who must save out of her allowance 
the money with which to purchase suits, dresses, 
underwear, shoes and stockings for Tom and 
Mary and Jane. 

The mother, deserted or widowed, must earn 
a livelihood for herself and family. She is driv¬ 
en into industry. The maintenance of her home 
depends upon her ability to obtain a living wage 
under working conditions that will not destroy 
her health. Thus industrial issues are vitally 
home issues in which thousands of women are 
interested. 

It is impossible to divorce politics from the 
home. We have been too blind to this fact in 
the past. We are just beginning to see that poli¬ 
tics centers in the home; that one of its first du¬ 
ties must be to conserve the home. If this duty 
105 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


is neglected then all other work we may do for 
conservation is rendered valueless. 

The Progressive movement seeks to end politi¬ 
cal indifference to the home. It believes the 
votes of women will hasten its end, because they, 
better than any others, appreciate the need of 
relief. The Progressives want to make it possi¬ 
ble for woman to return to her home, to regain 
her queenly place at the hearthstone, to be once 
more, in the sweetest and fullest meaning of the 
words, the wife and mother. 

It is not politics that is taking women out of 
the home, but stern economic necessity, on the 
one hand, and a craving of unsatisfied intellect 
on the other. Equal suffrage will help to miti¬ 
gate the one, and to meet the demand of the 
other. 

This chapter would be incomplete without a 
word devoted to the prominent and useful part 
that women are playing in the organization and 
work of the Progressive movement. 

Consistently with its declaration for full suf¬ 
frage the Progressive party made place at once 
for the equal partnership of men and women in 
its leadership and ranks. Miss Jane Addams 
106 


WOMAN AND THE MOVEMENT 


was chosen a member of the National committee. 
Her speech, seconding the nomination of Theo¬ 
dore Rosevelt, will live in the literature of the 
movement. To Miss Frances A. Kellor is due 
one of the most important contributions to its 
work—the planning of the Progressive Service. 
This department of which more will be said later, 
represents a new factor in politics, and stands, 
significantly, for the best that woman has done 
to aid the cause of human welfare. Miss Kellor 
is now the efficient chief of the Progressive Ser¬ 
vice. 

The department is one of research, study and 
reference, intended to be the quivering nerve of 
the party that links it vitally and intelligently to 
the deepest needs of the people. It is more than 
a bureau of cold statistics; it is a pulse with the 
heart-throb in it. It gives to the movement the 
beautiful dignity of that which seeks to serve. 

There is nothing more typical of the new 
movement than the fact that it has replaced the 
old-time slogan “Anything for Office” by the 
splendid cry of “Everyone for Service.” And 
to the women, more than to any other element 
in the movement, do we owe the emphasis on this 
inspiring watchword. 


107 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


Women are closely identified with the move¬ 
ment. They have organized their own auxiliar- 
ies to give help wherever help is needed. There 
are no restrictions on the opportunities for wo¬ 
men in the Progressive party. The bars are 
down, even in states where she has not yet 
achieved equal rights under the constitution— 
and this last bar is soon to fall. The old parties 
can no longer be indifferent to the demands of 
woman since the new party has admitted her to 
full comradeship. Henceforth, shoulder to 
shoulder with man, not as his dependent and sub¬ 
ordinate, but as his comrade in citizenship, she 
will keep step in the vanguard of the march to 
the goal of human happiness. 


108 


CHAPTER VII 

The Conservation of Human Resources. 

The conservation of human resources is a dis¬ 
tinctive policy of the Progressive movement. 
This, more than any other feature of its pro¬ 
gramme, has drawn to it thousands of earnest 
men and women, who, hitherto, have taken small 
interest in politics. 

By it we are projected on to a higher plane of 
political warfare, where the air is more exhilirat- 
ing and the vision clearer. There comes to us a 
new courage and a new zeal. The struggle, that 
had seemed so sordid, assumes a splendor and 
dignity that appeal to the best in our common 
humanity. We are fighting now, not for the 
rights of dollars, but for the rights of men; not 
for the protection of property, but for the safe¬ 
guarding of women and children. 

The field comprised by this inclusive phrase— 
the conservation of human resources—is so vase 
that only a library of books could deal with it 
adequately. And libraries have been written 
concerning it; great libraries, long neglected by 
109 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


our statesmen and politicians, but now becoming 
mighty factors in the shaping of issues and the 
remodelling of government. 

The average man and woman, busy with the 
multitudinous affairs of life, has not the time for 
the wide study necessary to cover the far range 
of this particular phase of Progressive interest 
and propaganda. It is the purpose of the fol¬ 
lowing chapters to condense the abundant mate¬ 
rial available to those of larger leisure, and to 
bring within brief compass and easy reach the 
substance of much research on the part of dili¬ 
gent students and advanced thinkers, in order 
that those with limited time and opportunity 
may be in possession of the important facts and 
main arguments supporting the constructive hu¬ 
man welfare programme of the Progressive 
movement. 

It was Theodore Roosevelt who first awakened 
the Nation to the fact that its natural resources 
were seriously threatened by the indifference of 
the masses and the anti-social greed of private 
exploiters. It was he who called the first con¬ 
servation conference and gave to the movement 
th$t is now doing so much for the saving of our 

no 


HUMAN RESOURCES 


forests, mines, water-power and soil its first great 
forward impulse. That movement gripped the 
imagination of the people, and stimulated the so¬ 
cial conscience in a remarkable manner. 

It is not surprising that, having had our atten¬ 
tion thus concentrated upon the natural resourc¬ 
es of the country, we should be led beyond this 
point of focus to thought for the human resourc¬ 
es. We were suddenly startled into considering 
the common wealth, and from that we passed, 
with inevitable logic, to a consideration of the 
common weal. One morning we awoke to find 
the Nation engaged in stock taking. It was 
checking over its possessions. Here were vast 
riches—much already under private control; 
much, as yet, undeveloped and within the reach 
of prompt action on the part of its rightful own¬ 
ers, the people. Here was enough and more 
than enough, under just administration, to satis¬ 
fy all wants, to drive the wolf from every door 
and to lift the shadow of poverty from every 
household in the land. Naturally we could not 
stop with such a stock-taking. Our thought 
went on to reckon with the related problem of 
conserving human life for the development and 
111 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


full enjoyment of all the great abundance with 
which Nature has blessed us so bountifully. 

The Progressive platform is the first authori¬ 
tative expression of am^ political party, other 
than the Socialist, to take account of this prob¬ 
lem. It is true that President Wilson, in his in¬ 
augural address, devoted several strong anti 
splendid sentences to the question of human wel¬ 
fare, but he spoke rather as an individual than as 
the interpreter of his party’s attitude. 

This phrase “the conservation of human re¬ 
sources” is no mere catch-word of glittering rhe¬ 
toric. It has a very definite and a very vital 
significance. 

In its broadest interpretation it means the pre¬ 
servation of the common life of the people, in 
both its individual and community expression, at 
the highest level of efficiency for production and 
of opportunity for development and enjoyment. 

In order to achieve this ideal it requires the 
elimination of those conditions which now tend to 
create what Roosevelt calls a “Human deficit.” 

The evils that menace human efficiency and 
enjoyment may be grouped as follows: 

Insufficient wages 


112 


HUMAN RESOURCES 

Economic dependence of women 
Child labor 
Over work 

Occupational diseases 
Industrial accidents 
Involuntary unemployment 
Illiteracy 

Impoverished old age. 

There is not one of these evils that is not sub ¬ 
ject to control and amelioration given a govern¬ 
ment that takes as much interest in the rights 
of man as in the rights of property. The Pro¬ 
gressive party proposes to take up these evils, 
one by one; it proposes to deal with them boldly 
and effectively. They have been dealt with in 
other countries. Surely the people of America 
can do what the people of Germany, Australia, 
New Zealand and, more recently, Great Britain, 
have done through their governments. Surely 
with the example and experience of these coun¬ 
tries, coupled with our own devisiveness and 
capability for self-rule, we can do even better 
what has been done so well by others. 

There are two leading phases of this pro¬ 
gramme for the conservation of human resources 
that carry strong appeal. 

118 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


The first is suggested by that part of the defi¬ 
nition given above which describes it as seeking 
“the preservation of the common life of the peo¬ 
ple at the highest level of efficiency for produc¬ 
tion.’’ This is the economic phase. 

We may pause here a moment to consider an 
objection to the whole human welfare pro¬ 
gramme that is raised by those who retain the old 
viewpoint as to the proper function of govern¬ 
ment. It is urged that we are stepping far be¬ 
yond the legitimate sphere of regulation and 
control when we attempt to deal with the ills that 
have been listed as contributory to a social and 
economic human deficit. We are advised that 
all we may seek to do by legislation is to give 
men freedom to struggle for existence, and that 
we must leave to the inexorable law of struggle 
and survival the shaping of the outcome. In 
other words we may not go farther than to let 
the blind forces of evolution work out human 
destiny. The law of the jungle must be su¬ 
preme in civilization. The fittest may survive. 
For the unfit we may have our charities—but 
not justice. Let competition have its perfect 
work, and he who cannot battle through may go 
114 


HUMAN RESOURCES 


to the wall. Any other programme than this, 
we are told, is based on a mere sentimental pater¬ 
nalism; it is emotional, hysterical and the hallu¬ 
cination of dreamers. 

Our answer to this objection presently will be 
detailed and particular. Now, in general, be it 
said, that the new philosophy replies:—The law 
of the jungle is not sufficient for civilization. 
Evolution must not proceed blindly, else we set 
the reasoning power of man at nought. The law 
of the survival of the fittest is superceded by a 
higher law, that of fitting all to survive. The 
right to struggle for existence gives place to the 
larger right of existing to develope and enjoy. 
Competition yields to the better way of coopera¬ 
tion. 

Almost coincidentally with the appearance of 
conservation as a word of newly developed na¬ 
tional and social significance, the word efficiency 
began to find general currency and to assume 
extraordinary interest. 

At first it was largely applied to the methods 
of work employed in industry, to the tasks of 
the factories and the management of the rail¬ 
roads. It gradually broadened out into every 
115 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


department of business. It invaded the field 
of religion and education. 

But it was almost wholly confined to methods; 
it was a term for the science of system that 
sought to discover the manner of belting human 
energy to the daily task so as to eliminate waste 
in its expenditure. 

Like conservation, however, efficiency was 
destined to have a deeper interpretation. It 
was not long before the thoughtful student dis¬ 
covered that waste lay not alone in method. He 
soon realized there was a terrible waste of the 
human machine itself: that the energy was not 
lost merely in making connection with the job, 
but that there were evils which depleted it at its 
source and weakened the generating power of 
the human dynamo. 

The employment of labor for profit has been 
accompanied by a terrible and tragic drain upon 
the vitality of the workers. The system that 
exploits labor relentlessly; that denies the wage 
earner a sufficient reward to enable him to nour¬ 
ish properly his body or to live in an environ¬ 
ment conducive to health and vigor, is blindly 
wasteful. 


116 


HUMAN RESOURCES 


Under these conditions, too common in this 
country, a man’s productive value to society is 
tremendously lessened. It has been shown by 
actual experiment that excessive hours of work 
do not increase the volume of product, and that, 
on the contrary, they assuredly militate against 
the quality of the commodity. The man whose 
vitality is sapped by toil at low wages for long 
hours becomes, before he has nearly lived the 
natural span of useful life, a charge upon society. 
The community must bear the cost of caring for 
that which some individual or corporation dis¬ 
cards after squeezing it of its worth. 

It is well to bear in mind that there is no waste 
for which the price is not paid by some one. The 
employer reckons that human life is cheaper than 
any other commodity in which he deals, because, 
while he must bear the expense of wear and tear 
upon machinery, he can discharge the man who 
has ceased to 'be profitable, through vital deple¬ 
tion, and employ another man at the same or a 
lower wage. But what he does not pay for wear 
and tear upon the man, society must pay. It 
pays in the loss of his productive value, and it 
pays again in charity and taxation for his care. 
117 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


When we become aroused to the economic sig¬ 
nificance of this fact we will have the motive of 
an enlightened self-interest impelling us to end 
a system so stupidly extravagant and costly. 

But there is another way in which these evils 
of the industrial system contribute to serious 
economic loss. They provoke class discontent. 
Strikes arise from them, those hideous battles on 
the field of industry which never fail to leave be¬ 
hind them their tale of dead and wounded. They 
are the food upon which the labor agitator waxes 
fat; they are the fuel with which the fire of class 
antagonism is fed. The paralyzing of great in¬ 
dustries, the impairment of capital through the 
idleness of productive property, and the social 
loss through the idleness of labor are tremen¬ 
dously costly consequence of this short-sighted 
and unintelligent policy. 

And once again there is loss because low wag¬ 
es, low standards of living and restricted ability 
to purchase the necessities and comforts of life 
react in a narrowing of the home market for the 
products of labor. This is a phase of the prob¬ 
lem that is seldom emphasized, but it is a very 
important phase of it. The manufacturer, ever 
118 


HUMAN RESOURCES 


eager to increase his margin of profit, seeks to 
maintain wages at the lowest possible level. For 
the same reason he enforces long hours of toil. 
He forgets that a large proportion of the con¬ 
suming public—the possible purchasers of his 
product—is composed of the wage-earners. 
Overlooking this fact he ultimately reaches the 
point in production where he finds it impossible 
to dispose of his commodities because the income 
of the workers is not sufficient to buy back for 
use what they have made for profit. 

We are familiar with those crises that have 
arisen from time to time in the economic history 
of the country when we have been told by wise 
men—or men seemingly wise—that we are too 
prosperous; we have produced more than we can 
sell profitably; the market is glutted. It is a 
strange kind of prosperity, for it is, inevitably, 
the breeder of want and suffering for millions. 

As the world market narrows, and competi¬ 
tion between nations for the patronage of the 
foreign consumer grows keener, this experience 
will become more frequent, unless there is a 
change made in the chaotic planlessness of our 
so-called industrial system. We will have again 
119 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


and again the strange anomaly of what is termed 
over-production in a country where the hungry 
and the homeless and the ill-clad are ever pres¬ 
ent. 

Such crises as these are terrific in their de¬ 
structive effect. The country gets a reverse 
from which it takes years to recover. The waste 
of life in periods of industrial depression, follow¬ 
ing over-production, is beyond estimate; the so¬ 
cial loss beyond the power of the statistician to 
calculate. 

Here then are three ways in which indifference 
to human welfare entails economic injury. 
Surely without further argument a case has been 
made out for the importance of remedial meas¬ 
ures. Surely the programme that contemplates 
bettering these conditions is not purely senti¬ 
mental or emotional. 

The trust, in one of its phases, is an attempt on 
the part of a class to cure the last of these ills. 
By combination to restrict output an effort is 
made to prevent over-production. This policy, 
however, is anti-social in its effect. It merely 
enables the owners of the productive process to 
eliminate a certain measure of waste and risk, 
120 


HUMAN RESOURCES 


and thus to increase their own profits without 
contributing to the welfare of society as a whole. 
In other words it is an effort to cure the evil by 
limiting the supply to the profitable possibilities 
for disposal, instead of by raising the standard 
of living so as to enlarge the field of absorption. 

In beginning this chapter I said that we had 
entered a field on which the battle was for the 
rights of man rather than for the rights of the 
dollar. The reader may think that thus far the 
argument has failed to make human welfare the 
supreme issue. It is true I have endeavored to 
show that indifference to human welfare means 
dollar loss; not that I am so greatly concerned 
about the dollar, except in-so-far as it represents 
human labor and the exchange value for those 
essentials of life that the human being requires, 
but, because, with many, the dollar argument is 
still the most potent. We have thought so long 
in terms of dollars and cents that it is not until 
the cause of men and women and children is con¬ 
verted into this economic equation that we are 
able to see there is more than sentimentality in 
some of the things which social reformers urge. 

But let us pass on now to consider the second 
121 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


phase in the conservation of human resources, 
second in point of order, but by no means in im¬ 
portance. In our definition it was called “the 
preservation of the common life of the people, in 
both its individual and community expression, at 
the highest level of opportunity for development 
and enjoyment.” This is the social phase. 

The economic phase really limits the view¬ 
point to the human being as an efficient machine 
for the production of wealth. Indirectly it con¬ 
tributes to the realization of this second and su¬ 
preme aim of conservation, but without conscious 
purpose. To make it possible for all human life 
to find full and complete expression individually 
and socially; to bring the wealth produced by its 
labor into a subordinate relation, a relation of 
ministry rather than mastery—this is the ideal 
conception of the goal toward which industry 
and government should strive. 

Unquestionably the industrial ills that were 
listed earlier bar the way to even an approxima¬ 
tion of this ideal. 

Probably there is no greater social and, there¬ 
fore, human menace, in the existing system than 
its peril to the homes of the people. By all ear- 
122 


HUMAN RESOURCES 


nest thinkers the home is regarded as the heart 
of civilization. No adequate substitute for it 
can be found. The man, the woman, and the 
child—these three are the essential factors in the 
perpetuation of the race and its progress toward 
a larger experience of happiness and a richer 
destiny. The welfare of civilization will be 
measured by the care it bestows upon them, in¬ 
dividually and in their family relation. 

It is perhaps an old fashioned theory in some 
quarters that the highest and noblest function of 
woman is motherhood, but it is an old-fashioned 
theory to which the Progressive movement ad¬ 
heres tenaciously. If it is right in this position 
—and my readers will scarcely need persuasion 
—then to conserve womanhood for the exercise 
of this function should be a constant and deter¬ 
mined aim of any humane and wise social sys¬ 
tem. 

But, as we have seen in the chapter devoted 
to woman and the Progressive movement, econo¬ 
mic evolution has developed an abnormal condi¬ 
tion for the sex that militates greatly against its 
fitness for the bearing of children. The ten¬ 
dency has been to drive women into industry; 

123 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


to expend their vitality in arduous toil at an age 
when they should have been mothering the fu¬ 
ture generation. Marriage has been postponed 
for many until an age when the sex function is 
more or less impaired. In other instances, 
where earlier wedlock has resulted in families of 
three or more children, later necessities have de¬ 
prived the infants of the mother’s care. Sick¬ 
ness, accident or death of the male bread-winner, 
often desertion, have thrust upon the woman the 
burden of providing for her young. This in¬ 
volves absence from the home, or occupation in 
the home, to the exclusion of that maternal care 
so essential to right upbringing. 

In like manner as the children themselves 
reach an age where they possess any earning 
power whatever, they, too, are forced out of the 
home life and family relation to engage in some 
kind of work for wages. This, of course, de¬ 
prives them of educational opportunities. They 
grow up illiterate and lacking of equipment to 
cope with life or to rise above the low level of 
subnormal development. Confinement during 
long hours of labor and insufficient nourishment 
and rest deplete their vitality, shorten their lives 
124 


HUMAN RESOURCES 

and make them dependents or delinquents at an 
early age. 

Nor, in many industries, is the case much bet¬ 
ter with the man. We have set too little store 
upon the importance of fatherhood as a social 
factor, even as we have neglected motherhood. 
The man who is worked from ten to twelve hours 
a day, whose wage is fixed at a bare subsistence 
figure, is handicapped to the verge of utter para¬ 
lysis for home duty. To him home is merely a 
shelter in which sleep may be had and a hasty 
meal eaten. To him the marital relation is little 
more than a legalized opportunity for breeding 
his kind; reproduction combines with sex gratifi¬ 
cation the sordid motive of increasing the family’s 
earning capacity. 

Out of such conditions what can society ex¬ 
pect? 

These evils are destroying the home, and with 
its destruction passes the most powerful in¬ 
fluence for good in the life of the Nation. The 
foundation of society is being sapped and under¬ 
mined. 

The progeny of such homes as these are not an 
asset but a burden. They may furnish cheap la- 
125 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


bor and an abundance of it for the employer, 
but it is cheap only to him. Society pays the de¬ 
ficit and pays it with interest. Poverty, degen¬ 
eracy, vice and crime—these are items on the 
debit side that foot a tremendous aggregate. 
No commodities are sold at bargain prices be¬ 
cause of underpaid labor for which the full cost 
must not be met by society in the long run. 

Society is awaking to these facts. Society is 
awaking to the peril that threatens its peace and 
order and stability. It is beginning to under¬ 
stand that a superstructure built upon a human 
foundation depends for its security upon the will- 
lingness of the foundation to “stay put.” There 
are many indications that submission has ceased 
to be a virtue characteristic of the social under¬ 
pinning. The real pillars—made by the brain 
and brawn of labor—are quaking in a fash¬ 
ion that is disturbing to those who promenade 
upon the roof-gardens of our civilization, and 
they are peering over the edge to discover the 
cause of this uneasiness. 

It is as well. Causes exist, and only by their 
removal can stability be restored. Civilization 
cannot continue as an inverted economic pyra- 
126 


HUMAN RESOURCES 


mid, delicately balanced upon the fine point of 
poverty and carrying above the huge weight of 
concentrated billions. 

There must be readjustment. The right to 
work; the right to share a just proportion of the 
wealth that labor produces; the right to live and 
to enjoy life in its abundance, must be recognized 
by society as the portion of every man and wom¬ 
an who contributes a fair quota to the social 
good, and the portion of every child who is born 
into the world. 


127 


CHAPTER VIII 

Social Wrongs and Remedies: 

THE PROBLEM OF WAGES 

Glittering generalities are not characteristic 
of the Progressive programme. Its leaders are 
often accused of being dreamers, and the accusa¬ 
tion has its element of truth. But the dream of 
an era in which wrongs will be righted and right¬ 
eousness will prevail in human relationships is 
surely a nobler mental attitude than passive sub¬ 
mission to the nightmare of conditions as they 
exist today. 

Every pioneer has been a dreamer, and every 
great achievement of civilization is a dream come 
true. 

The Progressives have dreamed, and from the 
mount of vision have descended to the plains of 
every day life determined to find a way in which 
the dream may be made actual. They are hitch¬ 
ing their stars to their wagons, if the old meta¬ 
phor may be reversed, and are going to pull the 
wagons out of the mire on to a higher level of 
experience and opportunity. 

128 


THE PROBLEM OF WAGES 


In approaching a solution of the problems that 
involve a readjustment of the present order so 
as to comply with the newer ideals of social and 
industrial justice we are confronted with the 
wages system as one that offers evidences of seri¬ 
ous abuses demanding remedy. 

There is, perhaps, no more difficult or delicate 
phase of the general problem than this. In or¬ 
der that we may the better understand its signifi¬ 
cance and the wisdom of the methods suggested 
for improving the conditions that are incidental 
to it, we must devote a few paragraphs to a con¬ 
sideration of what wages are, and what they im¬ 
ply as to the mutual responsibility of employers 
and employes. 

Under our industrial system labor is looked 
upon and treated as a commodity to be bought in 
the market at a price usually fixed by competi¬ 
tion and the law of supply and demand. That 
price is the wage. 

Few men would choose to work for a wage if 
the opportunity were open for them to earn an 
independent livelihood. 

Most men must work for a wage because the 
means for earning a livelihood are so largely con ¬ 
trolled by the comparatively few. 

129 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


Since the introduction of machinery in indus¬ 
try this condition has been greatly emphasized 
and grows increasingly acute. 

The tools of wealth production are now gener¬ 
ally owned by those who cannot use them, and 
used by those who cannot own them. 

The owners constitute a minority, the users a 
vast majority. Thus it has become a fact that 
the masses of the people are dependent for an op¬ 
portunity to earn a living upon the pleasure and 
profit of the comparatively few. 

They can only produce wealth as they are able 
to gain access to its source and to the tools by 
which it can be produced, and they may only re¬ 
tain that portion of it which the owners are will¬ 
ing to grant them, or which, by organization, 
they can demand effectively. 

This analysis of the situation discloses the bas¬ 
is for what the Socialist terms the “class strug¬ 
gle,” or the conflict between the owners and the 
workers for the wealth produced by toil. It is 
useless to deny the existence of this struggle. 
Every strike is an evidence of it. Labor unions, 
on the one hand, and employers’ associations, on 
the other, are the organized forces opposing one 
130 


THE PROBLEM OF WAGES 


another. Boards of arbitration, welfare organ¬ 
izations and similar factors that engage in the ef¬ 
fort to promote better understanding, prove the 
existence of the struggle. The mere circum¬ 
stance that here and there a truce has been ef¬ 
fected, and here and there a local industry pur¬ 
sues its way without conflict or disturbance may 
encourage the hope of ultimate adjustment, but 
does not disprove the contention that industry 
today is on a war footing, with a more or less 
clearly defined class cleavage. 

In the nature of things this class struggle can¬ 
not continue forever. Even were this possible it 
would be most undesirable from the standpoint 
of the social good. 

The Socialist predicts its end in the elimina¬ 
tion of the owning class, and to hasten this cul¬ 
mination preaches his doctrine of “class con¬ 
sciousness”—or the solidarity of working class 
interest as opposed to the interests of its employ¬ 
ers. 

The Progressive predicts its end in the read¬ 
justment of relations between workers and own¬ 
ers, the gradual wiping out of the present dis¬ 
parity, and, instead of “class consciousness,” 

131 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


preaches “social consciousness.” It is the con¬ 
viction of the present writer that one or other of 
these two gospels must prevail. By which meth¬ 
od the problem will be solved depends largely 
upon the attitude of the owning class. 

The owning class must recognize its social re¬ 
sponsibility. It is numerically inferior, but 
economically superior, and its economic super ¬ 
iority, for the present, gives it the dominant posi¬ 
tion. But since the minority has obtained, by 
whatever means, control of those things that are 
essential to the very existence of the majority, 
and is exercising that control for its own profits, 
the minority must be made to acknowledge its 
social obligation to the majority. 

Nor is this obligation discharged by the mere 
provision of employment. It is not a rare thing 
to hear the employer boast of his social value be¬ 
cause he gives work to so many men and women. 
This is no credit to him. He would not give the 
work if he were not making a profit from the 
workers. The moment conditions become such 
in his particular industry that it is no longer to 
his advantage to permit the workers access to his 
tools and raw materials he will close the doors of 


132 


THE PROBLEM OF WAGES 


his factory and turn the men and women he em¬ 
ploys out on the street to find a living where and 
how they may. 

This is not because everybody who can use his 
commodities is amply supplied; not because eve¬ 
rybody in the land is fed and clothed and housed 
in comfort, but simply because he can no longer 
dispose of his product at a profit on the toil of 
his workers. 

Between running full time at good wages and 
absolute suspension of activity there are many 
gradations answering to the owner’s interest. 
He may retain his workers and cut down the 
hours and the aggregate of wages; he may dis¬ 
charge a portion of his working force; he may 
lessen the rate of wages; or, in times of unusual 
opportunity for profit-making, he may employ 
various methods for speeding production at the 
least possible increase in cost. 

The general law governing wages is a tenden¬ 
cy to sink to a bare subsistence level. Enougli 
must be paid the worker to enable him to live and 
to breed his kind, since it is essential, for the suc¬ 
cess of the existing system, that a working class 
be perpetuated. 


133 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


This law is modified by that of supply and de¬ 
mand. Where certain sorts of labor are scarce 
—usually skilled labor—wages will rise as a con¬ 
sequence. But the machine age has tended to 
lessen the need for skilled labor, and the army 
of mere workers has grown enormously. 

Another modifying influence is that of labor 
organizations. The awakening of labor to a con¬ 
sciousness of its own need for organized self-de¬ 
fence has resulted in the unions employing the 
methods of industrial warfare to compell better 
conditions and higher wages. It is a class effort 
to control the labor market, much as the trust is 
a class effort to control the commodity market. 
That this fact is generally recognized may be 
judged from the application of the Sherman an¬ 
ti-trust law to labor as well as to capital. From 
this stand-point both the labor union and the 
trust are anti-social features of the existing in¬ 
dustrial mal-adjustment. 

There comes now a third factor in the situation 
—the quickening of a sense of social obligation, 
due, on the one hand, to an ethical revival, and, 
on the other, to alarm at the restlessness of the 
workers and the general insecurity of society. 

134 


THE PROBLEM OF WAGES 


This last factor finds sporadic illustrations in 
an increasing tendency on the part of employers 
to make welfare work a feature of their indus¬ 
tries. The Progressive movement is its political 
expression. It deliberately seeks a readjust¬ 
ment on the basis of social responsibility. 

We must devote a special word to women and 
wages. It is an almost invariable rule that a 
lower scale of wages is paid to women than to 
men. The general assumption is that this is be¬ 
cause women are less efficient than men. I think 
the assumption is mistaken. In many industries 
women are preferred to men because of their pe¬ 
culiar fitness, and yet receive wages lower than 
men would be offered for similar work. 

Long custom has regarded man as the natural 
bread-winner and woman as an economic depen¬ 
dent. This view survives the time when women 
were home-keepers; when their domestic duties 
fully occupied them; when they were not forced 
by necessity to become factory workers and sales¬ 
women. Early marriages prevailed in those 
days, and the man was expected to bear the full 
burden of maintenance for wife and children. 
Thus the standard of his wage was set at family, 
rather than individual, subsistence. 

135 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


And when women began to emerge from the 
home, following the occupations that had been 
transferred from the household to the factory, 
this view of her as an economic dependent upon 
man set a lower standard for her wage. That 
standard persists. Unconsciously it has con¬ 
trolled the attitude of the employer toward the 
woman wage-earner. It is impossible to avoid 
the conclusion that it has been buttressed by the 
fact that woman, in her sex, possesses a saleable 
commodity with which she can reinforce her 
wage. This fact is but another phase of her 
economic dependence, and only by making her 
economically independent can the necessity for a 
sex market as one of the most hideous features 
of our modern social life be abolished. 

Much has been said and written of late upon 
this disturbing phase of a great problem. There 
is evidence of a profound stirring of the public 
conscience and many investigations are on foot 
that will contribute to our better understanding. 
In the meantime it may be said with emphasis 
that there is an intimate relation between econ¬ 
omic necessity, due to low wages, and prostitu¬ 
tion. The voluntary prostitute is the exception 
136 


THE PROBLEM OF WAGES 


among those of the industrial class. Need drives 
on the one hand and creates the opportunity for 
greed to exploit on the other. 

We must reckon with the fact that vice today 
is a commercialized institution, a vast, profit¬ 
making system. The day of the independent 
prostitute has passed. Now she is the white 
slave of the procurer and the madame. Vice 
maintains its agents to solicit, persuade and en¬ 
trap its victims; these victims are chiefly found 
among those who, by reason of low standards of 
living, lack resistive power or protection. In 
the measure in which the girl and the woman- 
worker are made economically independent, in 
that measure are they removed beyond the easy 
reach of these human vultures. 

Recent statistics show that about 60 per cent 
of the women workers in the Eastern States gee 
less than $325 a year, and only ten per cent get 
more than $500. The remaining 30 per cent 
range between these figures. 

The average annual wage of industrial work¬ 
ers throughout the country is about $600 a year. 
Investigation of conditions in Lawrence, Mass., 
after the textile strike in 1912, showed that one 
137 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


third of the employes earned less than $7 a week 
when working full time, and 36 per cent of this 
number were males. 

The Russell Sage Foundation has estimated 
that an income under $800 is not sufficient to per¬ 
mit the maintenance of a normal standard for a 
family consisting of man, wife and three children. 
An income of $900 or over, it is estimated, will 
allow the maintenance of a normal standard, at 
least so far as actual physical wants are con¬ 
cerned. But whether an income between $800 
and $900 is sufficient is left an undetermined 
question. This is the twilight zone of wages. 

Thus it will be seen that the average income of 
the industrial worker—$600— falls considerably 
below the level of the minimum. According to 
the statistics of the 1910 census in the manufac¬ 
turing industries the average income is only 
about $520, and 75 per cent of the workers earn 
even less. 

The “human deficit” that is represented by 
these figures may be imagined. It means that 
75 per cent of the wage earners and those who 
depend upon them are existing on a level far 
below normal, under conditions that devitalize 
and degrade. 


138 


THE PROBLEM OF WAGES 


The Progressive party proposes three methods 
of endeavor to better this deplorable and perilous 
state of affairs: 

Publicity. 

Minimum wage standards for women. 

Denial of tariff privileges to industries that 
fail to pay their employes a living wage. 

Publicity: —Provisions will be made for the 
compulsory filing of wage schedules by employ¬ 
ers in all industries. All tallies, weights, meas¬ 
ures and check systems on labor products will be 
subject to public inspection. Hours and condi¬ 
tions of toil will be a matter of record. This in¬ 
formation will be gathered by the Department 
of Labor, of the Federal Government, in the case 
of interstate industry, and by such officials as the 
law may designate in States where the Progres ¬ 
sive programme is adopted. It will constitute a 
basis for legislation and regulation, and the pub¬ 
licity involved should exercise a powerful influ¬ 
ence toward improving conditions. The social 
conscience is reached and educated through pub¬ 
licity, and few men or institutions can stand ex¬ 
posure to its aroused indignation. Facts that 
are concealed in the private knowledge of those 
139 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


to whose advantage they may contribute derive 
a tremendous power for reform when they be¬ 
come known to the people generally. To be dy¬ 
namic information must be specific, and it is by 
the publication of detailed statements concern¬ 
ing wages, conditions of toil and similar matters 
bearing on the welfare of the workers that the 
Progressives believe much may be done to end 
the exploitation of labor. 

This information is of common concern. The 
people are entitled to it. Society must meet the 
human deficit, must make good for it, and society 
has the right to know why the deficit exists and 
how it may be lessened if not wholly eliminated. 

The Minimum Wage: —The Progressive 
programme proposes to apply the minimum 
wage principle to women workers. It may be 
necessary to extend the application to all wage 
earners, but for the present it is thought best to 
begin with that class which suffers most from un¬ 
derpayment, and the economic dependence of 
which constitutes a peculiar peril to the individu¬ 
al worker and to society as a whole. 

The organization of women workers has been 
successful only in very limited degree. The con- 
140 


THE PROBLEM OF WAGES 


stant fluctuation in the ranks of the women who 
toil, due to the fact that so many marry and re- 
tire from the field of labor, or from the trade in 
which they began their wage earning career, 
while others drop out to recruit the army of the 
underworld, makes it exceedingly difficult to es¬ 
tablish effective unions. Thus the women are 
lacking in the ability to protect their own inter¬ 
ests which has enabled the men to obtain in many 
instances better wages and better conditions for 
work. 

Minimum wage laws are not an untried ex¬ 
periment. Many of the arguments urged 
against them may be answered from the actual 
experience of other countries where they have 
been under test for years. This is notably the 
case in New Zealand and Australia. Great Bri¬ 
tain adopted the principle more recently, and is 
gradually extending it to many of its industries. 

The minimum wage principle proposes to fix 
by law the lowest wage essential to maintain hu¬ 
man efficiency. 

There are two plans generally recognized by 
which this principle may be put in operation. 

A specific minimum figure may be fixed for all 

141 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


industries. This is the plan that was proposed 
in a bill before the Illinois legislature at the ses¬ 
sion of 1913, the minimum of $12 per week be¬ 
ing named as the lowest lawful wage to be paid 
a woman or girl. 

The other plan contemplates the creation of 
wage boards in various industries to be charged 
with the duty and authority of determining the 
minimum standard in their particular industries. 
This is the method that was adopted by Victoria, 
a province of Australia, as long ago as 1896. 
The boards consist of equal numbers of employ¬ 
ers and employees from the affected trade, with 
an impartial chairman. They are empowered to 
determine the lowest wages that may be paid, to 
fix a rate for time or piece-work or both, and, by 
implication, to regulate the hours of labor. Pro¬ 
vision is made for apprentices, and the boards 
may fix the number to be allowed and the charac¬ 
ter of their work. 

More recently an act has been passed permit¬ 
ting an appeal to the industrial court, a tribunal 
created for dealing with disputes arising in in¬ 
dustry. This appeal is to be taken only when 
the wage board is unable to agree upon a wage 
142 


THE PROBLEM OF WAGES 


sufficiently high to ensure an adequate income 
to the workers. The industrial court is empow¬ 
ered to take the necessary steps in order to obtain 
a living wage for all employees in the affected 
trade. 

The wage boards act only when there is a dis¬ 
pute over wages between employers and employ¬ 
ees, and have no authority to intervene on their 
own initiative. In New Zealand, where labor 
unions are recognized by law and made respon¬ 
sible bodies, any union may lodge a complaint 
with the arbitration court, which is final author¬ 
ity on all industrial disputes. This court is fre¬ 
quently called upon to fix a minimum wage, and 
invariably sets a standard considerably in ad¬ 
vance of a bare subsistence figure. 

Both in Australia and in New Zealand the 
minimum wage policy has proven an effective 
means for stamping out sweat shop conditions, 
and has contributed to the stability of industry 
generally. It has overcome the original preju¬ 
dice of employers, and it is by no means an un¬ 
common thing to find members of the employing 
class voluntarily inviting the operation of the 
law. 


143 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


This plan of wage boards is approved by the 
Progressive movement as wiser, more elastic and 
more satisfactory to all the interests involved 
than that by which a specific wage is fixed as a 
minimum for all industries and all localities. 
Massachusetts has adopted the principle on a 
voluntary basis. A statute provides for boards 
to arbitrate wages and fix a minimum, but no 
provision is made for enforcing the finding. 

Critics of the minimum wage raise the objec¬ 
tion that it will result in depriving thousands of 
inefficient workers of employment, since employ¬ 
ers cannot afford to pay the higher rate fixed by 
law to any but those who are able to give service 
justifying it. In-so-far as this objection is valid 
it has been met in New Zealand by granting un¬ 
der-rate permits to the inefficient. In five years 
only 1,288 availed themselves of this right. 

The underlying principle of the minimum 
wage is that any worker who is worth employing 
at all is worth^enough to ensure a living at an ef ¬ 
ficiency standard. But the inefficiency permit 
makes it possible for those who are too old to do 
a normal measure of work to obtain such employ¬ 
ment as they have capacity for at small wage. 

144 


THE PROBLEM OF WAGES 


Furthermore it stimulates the younger, who are 
often inefficient from more or less controllable 
causes, to apply themselves with greater dili¬ 
gence. For such the inefficiency permit is a 
stigma they recoil from inviting. 

It should be borne in mind that inefficiency 
will grow less as the minimum wage principle 
becomes generally enforced, since it in itself will 
remove one of the chief causes. As the stand¬ 
ard of living is improved by better wages so the 
average of efficiency will improve. This objec¬ 
tion—probably the most serious that has been of¬ 
fered—will disappear with the generation that 
grows up under minimum wage conditions. 

Another objection that is occasionally made is 
the danger that the superior workers will suffer 
from a minimum wage that raises the average 
standard of wages. It is feared that employers 
will feel unable to reward sufficiently the worker 
whose merit is above the average. But this dan¬ 
ger is largely counteracted by the competition 
that exists for the services of those who are unus¬ 
ually capable. In New Zealand and Australia 
the only difficulty experienced on this score has 
been in cases where the minimum has been made 
unreasonably high. 


145 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


A further objection is that the minimum wage 
will lead to the supplanting of women workers 
by men, and hence will occasion an additional 
hardship upon the sex that is now so generally 
underpaid. The obvious answer to this objec¬ 
tion is that anything which will increase the op¬ 
portunities for men to find employment, thus 
lessening the number of unemployed and de¬ 
creasing the competition among job-seekers, will 
be a wholesome factor in the industrial situation. 
If there are enough idle men to take the places 
of the women workers, and they are given em¬ 
ployment at a living wage, it means the possi¬ 
bility of keeping the young girls at home or in 
school and of a return to the early marriages 
that obtained before economic necessity drove so 
many women into industry. This would be a 
distinct gain to society and the homes of the peo¬ 
ple. 

It is worth observing, however, that the op¬ 
ponents of a minimum wage standard are the 
very people who most often declare that no man 
who really wants to vork need be unemployed. 
If this be true it is difficult to understand where 
the men are to be found who will supplant the 
millions of women now engaged in industry. 

146 


THE PROBLEM OF WAGES 


And the same observation applies to the ob¬ 
jection already considered to the effect that the 
inefficient would be crowded out to make room 
for the efficient. Where are the efficient? Are 
we to understand that there are better workers 
idle in sufficient number to occupy the vacant 
positions that would he created by a wholesale 
dismissal of the so-called inefficient? If this be 
true what are we to think of the business system 
that employs inefficiency in preference to efficien¬ 
cy? 

Recent discussion of the minimum wage prin¬ 
ciple, arising out of investigations held by legis¬ 
lative committees and other bodies, has gone far 
to strengthen the view that the problem is one to 
be dealt with nationally. The complaint made 
against State legislation by employers is that it 
will put the industries of the minimum wage 
state at a competitive disadvantage with those of 
states where wages are not standardized by law. 
This complaint is reasonable. The Progressive 
movement recognizes the national character of 
industrial problems and advocates the exercise of 
Federal power for their solution so far as the 
constitution will permit. It is prepared to urge 
147 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


amendment of the constitution if this be neces¬ 
sary in order to obtain the freedom for a com¬ 
plete readjustment in harmony with the prin¬ 
ciples it believes should underlie the industrial 
and social system of the Nation. 

Regulation By Tariffs — The following 
significant paragraph occurs in the Progressive 
platf6rm under the caption “Tariff”:— 

“We believe in a protective tariff which shall 
equalize conditions of competition between the 
United States and foreign countries, both for 
the farmer and the manufacturer, and which 

SHALL MAINTAIN FOR LABOR AN ADEQUATE STAND¬ 
ARD of living. Primarily the benefit of any 

TARIFF SHOULD BE DISCLOSED IN THE ENVELOPE 
OF THE LABORER. We DECLARE THAT NO INDUS¬ 
TRY DESERVES PROTECTION WHICH IS UNFAIR TO 
LABOR.” 

It has always been the boast—immediately 
prior to elections—of the Republican party that 
its protective tariff was a guarantee of higher 
wages and steadier employment to the workers. 
The boast has proved an empty one in many cas¬ 
es. It was notably an empty one in the case of 
the woolen trust, the most highly favored of all 
148 


THE PROBLEM OF WAGES 


industries under the tariff. The Lawrence, 
Mass., investigation showed that cruelly low 
wages prevailed, and that the full benefit of the 
protection bestowed upon this trade was going 
into the pockets of the employers. 

The Progressive platform proposes to make 
good the boast of the Republican protectionists. 
It proposes to employ the tariff primarily as a 
means of protecting wages and compelling a de¬ 
cent living standard. There seems little doubt 
that this can be done, given the motive to do it. 
A nonpartisan, scientific tariff commission, such 
as the Progressive movement contemplates, in 
possession of all the facts would be in a position 
to recommend such withdrawal of tariff privileg¬ 
es as would penalize any industry unfair to its 
workers. 

So far in America the chief influence working 
for a higher standard of living has been that of 
organized labor. The labor unions have estab¬ 
lished their own minimum wage laws in many in¬ 
dustries. But the unions include only a small 
proportion of the wage-earners of the country. 
Many unions are weak, and employers’ associa¬ 
tions have developed formidable strength in op- 
149 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


posing them. For the unorganized workers and 
for those whose organizations lack the necessary 
strength to champion them effectively—and in 
these classes is embraced an over-whelming ma¬ 
jority of the toilers—the only hope lies in action 
through government. 

The serious undertaking of the wage problem 
as a part of the Progressive movement is a big 
step toward the goal of social readjustment. 
That goal will never be reached under the ab¬ 
solute wage dependence of our existing system. 
We must keep in mind a bigger ideal than the 
living wage, an ideal set forth by Theodore Roos¬ 
evelt in the following sentence from his “Con¬ 
fession of Faith.” 

“Ultimately we desire to use the government 
to aid as far as can safely be done in helping the 
industrial tool-users to become in part tool-own¬ 
ers, just as our farmers now are.” 

It is in this direction that economic freedom 
lies, and only through economic freedom and in¬ 
dustrial democracy can the full happiness of all 
the people be realized. 


150 


CHAPTER IX 
Social Wrongs and Remedies: 

CHILD LABOR 

“Every child has a right to be well born, well 
nourished and well protected; to be a child and 
to have a chance to play. To cheat the child out 
of its childhood is the greatest wrong that can be 
committed by society. It were better that its 
industries should be sunk in the depths of the sea, 
than that it should build its profits out of the 
labor of little children.” 

These strong, true words are from the pen of 
Dr. Batten, secretary of the social Service com¬ 
mittee of the Northern Baptist convention. 

More than 300,000 children, between the ages 
of ten and fifteen, are employed in the manufac¬ 
turing and mechanical industries of the United 
States. Nearly 2,000,000 between the same ages 
is the total employed in all “gainful occupa¬ 
tions,” including agriculture, trade and domestic 
service. 

Pennsylvania, New Nork, Massachusetts and 
Illinois lead all the states in the number of chil- 

151 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


dren engaged in factory work. The Southern 
states have the biggest aggregate of child work¬ 
ers, but it is largely swollen by those children who 
are employed in the fields. It is obvious then 
that the problem of child labor is not sectional. 
North as well as South is concerned. It is an 
evil national in its scope. The importance of 
this will be noted later when we come to a discus¬ 
sion of remedial measures. 

In spite of the fact that few of our modern 
social problems have received more attention than 
this, and that for years earnest men and women 
have been talking and writing against this evil, 
one still finds occasionally, even outside the ranks 
of those who profit directly by the employment 
of children, some seemingly intelligent and well- 
intentioned people who profess to believe that 
child labor is not an ill; that, indeed, it is often 
a blessing. 

In view of this singular persistence of an ex¬ 
traordinary idea it may be as well to consider 
some phases of the child labor problem as it ef¬ 
fects both the child and society at large—for it 
does concern society, and that in a most serious 


manner. 


152 


CHILD LABOR 


The period between the ages of ten and fif¬ 
teen is one of the most vital importance, physical¬ 
ly, mentally and morally. It is a period, under 
normal development, of rapid bodily growth and 
mental unfoldment. It is the time when sex 
consciousness is dawning and the sex organs 
themselves are developing; during these years 
the child nature is peculiarly susceptible to im¬ 
pressions; habits, inclinations, moral tendencies 
are acquired that shape the whole life. 

The hope of healthful, sane, efficient maturity 
depends upon the influences that mould the child 
at this period. The welfare of society depends 
upon the attainment of such maturity. Thus is 
the individual good bound up with the social. 

The place for the child at such a time is in the 
home and the school, under the care of those who 
understand his needs, who sympathize with him, 
who see in him material for manhood and not op¬ 
portunity for profit. 

But 2,000,000 children of this sensitive age are 
in “gainful occupations.” Of these 300,000 or 
more are working in the confinement of factor¬ 
ies, an almost equal number are in domestic ser¬ 
vice, and approximately 100,000 are employed in 
153 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


trade and transportation. To none of these can 
childhood mean what it should. Not one of them 
has a fair chance. 

Every student of childhood agrees that play is 
an essential factor in normal development. The 
kitten plays, the puppy plays, all young animals 
play. It is thus that they discover themselves 
mentally and physically. Only in play can be 
found the freedom necessary for such discovery, 
the liberty for the life forces to expand and ex¬ 
press themselves. To eliminate the play of 
childhood is to rob it of a necessary element in its 
completeness, and to deprive it of an inherent 
right. 

Rut the factory child cannot play. His wak¬ 
ing hours are occupied with exacting and mono¬ 
tonous toil. The very inclination for play is 
squeezed out of him, and his little child soul is 
left dry and exhausted by the demands of his 
task. 

At this mouldable period, when all the fluid 
life forces are taking the shape of whatever en¬ 
vironment they may be furnished, he is put to 
work at some machine. For twelve or fourteen 
hours a day he repeats over and over again some 
154 


CHILD LABOR 


narrowly limited series of motions. Day after 
day and week after week it is the same tedious, 
unvarying round. He becomes, like the machine 
he operates, a mere mechanism. All faculties at¬ 
rophy except those that are called into exercise 
by his task, and they soon assume a habit that 
narrows them into a deadening channel of auto¬ 
matic repetition. The child is practically para¬ 
lyzed for any other work than that on which he 
is engaged. 

Take into the reckoning, also, the drain upon 
the vital forces that such long hours of monoton¬ 
ous and exigent toil involve. Life is being ex¬ 
travagantly burned for profit. Nerve strength 
is being woven by the machine into cheap com ¬ 
modities—commodities that will sell for a few 
cents, and be called cheap, but that have cost a 
price too high to estimate in dollars. This child, 
before one-third of his life has been lived, will be 
ready for the human waste heap—one of indus¬ 
try’s discards, lightly cast aside because he may 
be so easily replaced. 

This is but the physical side of the question. 
What has been done to the mind of the child? 
It has been deprived of education. At the un- 
155 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


developed age of ten it is suddenly forced into a 
groove where it must shrink and shrivel. The 
factory associations are far from wholesome. 
An infant in years the child becomes the compan¬ 
ion of adults, too often callously indifferent to 
his innocence. 

He hears and sees things that deprave and 
brutalize. He gets a viewpoint that distorts and 
discolors the whole vista of life. His starved 
childhood, stupefied by the monotony of his toil, 
seeks external stimulus that is often harmful. 
Do you grant a child a soul? Then what chance 
has it under such conditions? What can God 
mean to this child? The foreman who repri¬ 
mands him harshly when he falls behind in his 
work, or when his tired fingers stumble, may be 
a deacon in the church. The employer who lives 
upon the profit of his toil may be a philanthro¬ 
pist. Will the God of the foreman and the em¬ 
ployer appeal to the soul of the child? 

To this picture there may be exceptions. 
Child labor may not be always as hopeless, al¬ 
ways as degrading. But in-so-far as it substi¬ 
tutes work for play; denies opportunity for edu¬ 
cation, and takes the child out of the home at an 
156 


CHILD LABOR 


age when he is most impressionable, it can only 
be harmful. It means—it must mean—a heavy 
discount on his chances, a burdensome handicap 
in the struggle for existence. 

And what does society pay for this exploita¬ 
tion of childhood ? It puts the home in the price. 
In many localities the whole family works in the 
factories. Mother, father and children toil all 
day or all night. There is no home life. The 
dwelling is merely a shelter, a place in which the 
exhausted frames may cast themselves down to 
sleep. 

What a terrible cost is this! Society cannot 
afford to lose the home. It is too great a sacri¬ 
fice to make for hasty dividends. It means the 
reaping of a tragic harvest, a harvest that is gar¬ 
nered into jails, penetentiaries, asylums and oth¬ 
er institutions established by society for its 
wreckage of dependents and degenerates. 

Let Jane Addams tell another phase of the so¬ 
cial cost. As head of Hull House she was 
watching the career of a certain girl. The child 
had a fair home, and a mother who was a good 
woman, but a working-woman. The girl was 
employed during the day, but at night was seen 
157 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


frequently on the streets in the company of un¬ 
desirable associates. An appeal to her mother 
brought tears and protestations of regret, but 
the statement that she feared to say anything to 
the child because she contributed to the mainten¬ 
ance of the family, and might leave home if she 
were crossed. The girl herself was spoken to. 
She replied, “My Ma can’t say anything to me— 
I pay the rent.” 

But it is not merely the home of the child that 
is menaced, nor the child’s own character. The 
home of the woman into whom the child may 
grow, if her toil leaves her sufficient strength to 
survive the incidental ills of immaturity, must 
carry the physical and moral mortgage of a 
crushed and distorted childhood. What fitness 
can the woman with such a youth history have 
for hearing young and nurturing them? Phys¬ 
ically, nervously and mentally depleted she gives 
birth to offspring that perpetuate her own de¬ 
ficit of vitality. 

Again and again it must be repeated that these 
human deficits cannot go unpaid. In the long- 
run a settlement is exacted from society, and the 
law that enforces a just balance takes no account 
of persons or classes. 


158 


CHILD LABOR 


You, who have bought bargains at the store 
counter from some pallid girl worker, you were 
making a temporary profit from her small wage 
and from the long hours and low wages of hund¬ 
reds of children in the mills, whose life-fibre is 
woven into the material that costs but a few cents 
from your purse. 

But do not think that you can escape the reck¬ 
oning. Out of the poverty of soul and mind and 
body that is created by this system comes a Ne¬ 
mesis—crime, degeneracy, disease—that may lay 
its avenging hand upon your home, far removed 
though it be from the wretched conditions that 
bred it. 

Nor is the industrial system immune from the 
cost of seeking quick profits through the exploi¬ 
tation of childhood. It too must pay eventually 
for its waste of human life. Sc ott Neari ng, in 
his excellent book “Social Adjustment”, quotes 
the treasurer of the Alabama City Cotton Mill as 
saying: “Every time I visit this mill I am im¬ 
pressed with the fact that it is a great mistake to 
employ small help in the spinning room. Not 
only is it wrong from a humanitarian standpoint, 
but it entails an absolute loss to the mill.” 


159 




THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


Children are not reliable help. They are 
quick and active at first; they cost little; but they 
are wasteful, subject to accident and apt to make 
serious mistakes. 

But the economic folly of child labor is best 
seen in the heavy discount it makes upon the fu¬ 
ture value to industry of the growing generation. 
S. W. Woodward, in “A Business Man’s View of 
Child Labor,” writes, “It may be stated as a safe 
proposition that for every dollar earned by u 
child under fourteen years of age, tenfold will be 
taken from their earning capacity in later years.” 

Even as we were permitting the waste of our 
timber resources, until the inauguration of the 
conservation policy, and discounting the future 
prosperity of the Nation by our extravagant ex¬ 
ploitation of this invaluable possession, so child 
labor is wasting the human resources upon which 
the industrial efficiency of tomorrow must de¬ 
pend. If industry is too blind to see this fact, 
then society, for its own protection, must step in 
and put an end to a course so stupidly and cruel¬ 
ly destructive. 

And here again we have emphasized the Pro¬ 
gressive philosophy of the social organism. 

160 



CHILD LABOR 


Whether child labor shall be used is not the pri¬ 
vate affair of the employer, or the mutual affair 
of the parent and the employer. It is the prob¬ 
lem of all society. Parent and employer, even 
with the child’s consent and approval, cannot be 
allowed to dispose of society’s right in the child 
as an integral part of its organism. 

Like most such evils child-labor arises from an 
economic cause. It is closely related to the low 
wage problem which we considered in the last 
chapter. On the one hand we have the family 
necessity for increasing the income, and on the 
other the avidity of the employer for a large 
profit margin over cost of labor. These things 
conspire to force the child into industry. 

In discussing wages it was shown that the 
average earnings of the working class family, 
where but one bread-winner is employed, are 
barely enough to maintain two adults and three 
children at a starvation level. If the family 
goes beyond the limit of size, or aspires to any 
greater measure of security and subsistence, it 
involves the need that one or more of the chil¬ 
dren should join the earning ranks. 

Scott Nearing, in his book to which I have re- 



THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


ferred, lays much emphasis upon a faulty 
school system as a contributory cause of child 
labor, and there is unquestionably justification 
for his contention in such instances as lack the 
provocation of economic necessity. 

He contends that school, in many cases, loses 
its attraction for the child at about the age of 13, 
and that it takes but small inducement or en¬ 
couragement to persuade him to leave the class¬ 
room for the store or factory. 

The over-crowding evil is characteristic of city 
schools. It results in making the problem of 
discipline for the teacher a bigger one than that 
of teaching, and destroys all opportunity for 
individual attention. In a room with forty pu¬ 
pils the average teacher is at a serious disadvan¬ 
tage. The work becomes mass work, in which 
personal needs and idiosyncracies have to be 
subordinated to the necessity for order and pro¬ 
gress on the part of the whole. The child who 
is a little backward, who is physically below par, 
who lacks, not mentality, but quick apprehen¬ 
sion, suffers discouragement and welcomes the 
chance to escape into a life where he fancies he 
will have greater liberty and larger opportunity. 

162 


CHILD LABOR 


And yet this is the child that is in greatest 
need of help; to whom the prolongation of school 
life means most in the end. 

The increasing tendency to adopt manual 
training and domestic science as features of com¬ 
mon school education will greatly help to cor¬ 
rect this weakness by imparting an interest to 
school work that directly relates it to the life - 
struggle. 

There are two proposals in the Progressive 
programme that bear upon the solution of the 
child labor problem. One declares for the aboli¬ 
tion of child-labor; the other urges the establish¬ 
ment of vocational schools or continuation class¬ 
es for industrial education. 

Efforts to end child-labor by State legislation 
have been met with the opposing argument, fre¬ 
quently referred to in previous chapters, that 
its abolition will put the industries of the State 
so affected at a serious disadvantage in compet¬ 
ing with industries in states where child-labor is 
permitted. That this, from the employers’ 
standpoint, is a real objection must be admitted, 
and we have no right to impose a hardship that 
may be avoided by some other and equally effec- 
163 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


five method of attaining the same end. Child 
labor legislation should issue from the Federal 
Government as well as from state governments. 
The one source of authority must reinforce the 
other, as in the case of the Mann white slave law 
and the Webb liquor bill. 

Both these measures are based upon the power 
of Congress to regulate interstate commerce, and 
the former has been sustained by the Supreme 
Court in an opinion that not merely upheld this 
specific law, but laid down the general principle 
that Congress has the right to impose such re¬ 
strictions upon interstate commerce as may be 
necessary for the public welfare, or to ensure 
effect to laws in the interests of public morals 
enacted by state legislatures. 

And it was through this channel that former 
Senator Beveridge proposed, when in the Sen¬ 
ate, to reach the evil of child-labor. His bill was 
designed to forbid interstate commerce in the 
products of child-labor. Thus the employment 
of children in factories of any size or importance, 
or in industries conducted under contract in the 
homes of the poor, would have been made profit¬ 
less—the only thing necessary to impell an 
abandonment of the practise. 

164 


CHILD LABOR 


Other forms of juvenile industry, such as do¬ 
mestic service—over the propriety of which there 
may be room for debate, much depending upon 
the character of the household and the attitude 
of the employer—and employment in trade, such 
as stores, offices, messenger service and similar 
occupations, would have to be regulated by state 
law. 

That these forms of industry should be regu¬ 
lated is a fact recognized by every student of 
child welfare. For example statistics show that 
more prostitutes are recruited from domestic ser¬ 
vice than from any other field of work. The de¬ 
moralizing influence of night messenger work on 
young boys is well understood. It brings them 
into touch with the underworld in its most vicious 
and degrading aspects. They are sent to houses 
of prostitution, and become familiar with the 
ugliest phases of immorality. In some states the 
employment of boys for night work of this char¬ 
acter has been prohibited. 

The effect of prohibiting child-labor would be 
to force an increase in the wages of the industries 
affected, inasmuch as it would lead to the with¬ 
drawal from the labor market of a cheap and 
165 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


plentiful supply, thus lessening the wage-low¬ 
ering competition for jobs. 

The committee on Standards of Living and 
Labor of the National Conference of Charities 
and Corrections sets forth as the minimum regu¬ 
lation that society should require, the following: 

“The absolute prohibition of factory labor for 
children under fourteen. 

“The limitation of labor to eight hours for 
children under eighteen. 

“The exclusion of the young from night labor 
and from hazardous and poisonous occupations.” 

These restrictions are well within the limit of 
what is reasonable. We will have to go farther 
in all probability, but that is a matter for the 
education of the social conscience and deliberate 
consideration of all the interests involved. 

Much has been done already toward improv¬ 
ing conditions in many of the states. There are 
few that have not passed some regulatory legis¬ 
lation, and a most encouraging tendency toward 
creating a higher standard is evidenced. 

We have already noted the improvement in 
the educational situation that is gradually com¬ 
ing about by a modernizing of the school curricu- 
166 


CHILD LABOR 


lum. If in this programme there is included the 
provision for continuation schools, so that youths 
of 14 and over can have opportunity to carry on 
their studies along lines that will fit them for 
greater efficiency, the evil of illiteracy as a phase 
of juvenile labor will be greatly mitigated. The 
per cent of children who complete their common 
school education and enter the high schools is 
astonishingly small, in some centers being as low 
as 5 per cent. The continuation school, devoted 
to a vocational curriculum, will meet the need of 
the large number, who, for various causes, fall 
short of full equipment for life. 

Where such schools exist, and they have been 
established with the most excellent effect in not 
a few cities, they are planned so as to be conve¬ 
nient for young people engaged in industry, the 
classes, usually, being held in the evening. 


167 


CHAPTER X 
Social Wrongs and Remedies: 

INDUSTRIAL ILLS AND HAZARDS 

Any thorough plan of social and industrial 
readjustment must take into consideration cer¬ 
tain ills and hazards that are characteristic of our 
modern system, and that are responsible in no 
small degree for the human deficit which is an 
automatically increasing burden upon society. 

Overwork: —Overwork may be defined as a 
draft upon human energy that leaves a growing 
deficit for which the ordinarily available means 
of rest and recuperation is not sufficient to com¬ 
pensate. It is due chiefly to two causes—long 
hours and speeding. 

It is now established as a physiological fact 
that fatigue is a condition of auto-poisoning in¬ 
duced by over-exertion of the physical functions. 
It creates in the blood and muscle tissue an ele¬ 
ment that accumulates when not counteracted by 
its only antidote—rest, thus producing exhaus¬ 
tion with such impairment of the resistive powers 
of the body as to make the victim easily suscep¬ 
tible to disease. 


168 


INDUSTRIAL ILLS 


A period of eight hours—one third of the day 
—has been generally accepted as a normal period 
of work. Beyond this period each added hour 
increases the peril of fatigue and tends to a de¬ 
pletion of vitality below the point of recovery. 
When, as is not infrequently the case, the work 
period extends to 12 or 14 hours, the menace of 
fatigue becomes grave indeed. In most indus¬ 
tries the working day is from ten to eleven hours. 

In some industries, usually described as “sea¬ 
sonal,” the long hours are confined to several 
months of the year when a “rush” is on. This 
involves idleness on the part of many of the em¬ 
ployes during the dull time, a hardship of indus¬ 
try that must be included in the programme of 
betterment. 

Speeding is the other primary cause of over¬ 
work. This very prevalent factory method often 
disguises itself under the name of efficiciency. 
As a matter of fact it is, in its customary form, 
the deadly enemy of real efficiency. 

Various plans for speeding are employed, all 
of them intended to intensify the concentration 
of the worker upon his task, and to quicken his 
operation to the limit of endurance. Sometimes 
169 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


this purpose is accomplished by so multiplying 
the capacity of the machine for each operative 
that he will have from two to twenty times as 
great an area for observation and control as was 
formerly considered enough for one worker. 
Scott Nearing instances the fact that girl shirt¬ 
waist makers in New York complained that 
where formerly they each had only one needle to 
watch, now many of them have from two to 
twenty needles, moving at a rate double that 
which marked the earlier machines. When the 
needles break, the thread catches, or some one of 
a dozen things goes wrong, the strain is greatly 
increased, and the knowledge that the workers 
are being watched by the critical and censorious 
eyes of a foreman intensifies the nervous pres¬ 
sure. 

The improvement in machinery—that is to 
say the increase in machine capacity requiring 
closer concentration on the part of the operative 
—has more than kept pace with whatever short¬ 
ening of hours marks the last decade in industry. 
Under the speeding system the vital exhaustion 
in eight hours may equal that in twelve under the 
old plan, and may even exceed it. 

170 


INDUSTRIAL ILLS 


Another speeding plan is the use of pace-mak¬ 
ers, or experts, who set a standard to which the 
others are constantly urged to attain. In some 
cases a bonus is offered for all work over a speci¬ 
fied amount. In spite of the compensation the 
result of this method is physically harmful. 

When this over-strain is combined with un¬ 
sanitary conditions of factory premises, foul air, 
poor ventilation and bodily discomfort, the sit¬ 
uation is greatly aggravated. 

P rof, jrving Fisher, of New Haven, Conn., 
says “The economic waste from fatigue is prob¬ 
ably much greater than the waste from serious 
illness.” Tuberculosis and neurastheneia are of¬ 
ten traceable to fatigue. It is provocative of an 
excessive use of alcohol and narcotics, and some 
students think it is a contributory cause to im¬ 
morality through its tendency to reduce the pow¬ 
er of self control and to increase the desire for 
the artificial stimulus of excitement. 

The danger of accidents is unquestionably in¬ 
creased by fatigue. An investigation in France 
in a single industry, and including in its scope 
6695 workingmen, showed that the tendency to 
accident increased by 400 per cent from 7 o’clock 

171 






THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


in the morning to 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Out 
of 521 accidents tabulated, only 25 occurred be¬ 
tween 7 and 8 in the morning, whereas 118 oc¬ 
curred between 5 and 6 in the afternoon. It is 
significant that the number of accidents in¬ 
creased up to noon, during the hour preceding 
which 63 occurred, but that after the noon rest, 
between the hours of 1 and 2, they dropped to 
18, quickly rising again as the day advanced. 

Finally the deprivation of leisure due to over¬ 
work militates against the intelligence of the 
working class, and thus creates the danger of 
blind mass movements for relief that are too fre¬ 
quently destructive and reactionary rather than 
constructive and progressive. 

The remedy for this evil lies in a shortening 
of hours of labor and a proper adjustment of 
work in order that intensity may be kept within 
the limits of true human efficiency. The Pro¬ 
gressive programme proposes prohibition of 
night work and an eight hour day for all women 
and young persons in industry, and one full day’s 
rest for all wage workers. It further proposes 
that in continuous twenty-four hour industries 
three eight hour shifts be made obligatory by law, 
172 


INDUSTRIAL ILLS 


irrespective of the sex of the workers. Event¬ 
ually the eight hour principle will be made uni¬ 
versal. There is no sound reason, under a sanely 
adjusted industrial system why any man or wo¬ 
man should toil for wages longer than eight 
hours a day. 

Hazards of Industry: —There are certain 
hazards of industry against which the average 
wage earner takes no precaution. Many of these 
risks are not to be foreseen in individual cases, 
and for the general risk the means are not at 
hand to make provision. Many of them are be¬ 
yond the control of the workers, and must be 
accepted as incidental to the struggle for exist¬ 
ence. 

These hazards may be summarized as follows: 
—Industrial accidents, sickness, unemployment 
and old age. 

For the consequences of all there is a method 
of social mitigation and remedy. For two, at 
least, much can be done by way of prevention. 
Industrial accidents and sickness are avoidable 
hazards under a system where social responsi¬ 
bility is recognized and enforced. The peril of 
unemployment may be largely lessened. For 
173 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


old age, of course, there is no preventive. It 
must be provided for as an inevitable climax to 
the normal working life. 

Before discussing briefly the Progressive pro¬ 
gramme for dealing with these problems it will 
be well to give some idea of their scope and im¬ 
portance. I am largely indebted to a work by 
Henry Rogers Seager, Professor of Political 
Economy in Columbia University, for the facts 
and figures employed. 

The proportion of industrial accidents to the 
thousand wage-earners in this country is prob¬ 
ably greater than in any other country in the 
world with a claim to be considered civilized. It 
is estimated that our railroads kill nearly three 
times and injure five times as many per thousand 
as the railroads of Great Britain; we kill two 
and one half times as many and injure five times 
as many as Germany; we kill more than three 
times as many and injure nine times as many as 
Austria-Hungary. Exclusive of accidents re¬ 
ported by switching and terminal companies, the 
railroads of the United States killed 2,610 em¬ 
ployes and injured 75,006 in 1909. The compa¬ 
rison in the mining industry is only slightly less 
174 


INDUSTRIAL ILLS 


unfavorable. In 1910 mining fatalities in the 
United States were 2838 and persons injured 
7830. We have little reason to believe that con¬ 
ditions are much better in the factories; but here, 
owing to the lack of any provision for registra¬ 
tion, we are without statistics. In this failure 
to keep track of our industrial dead and wound¬ 
ed we are far behind other nations. It is as¬ 
suredly a disgrace to us that we hold human life 
so cheap as to make no provision for counting 
the cost of our industrial system in terms of men 
and women slain, disabled and spent. Our neg¬ 
lect is largely responsible for our failure to better 
conditions that are so cruelly extravagant. The 
Progressive programme, by requiring a strict ac¬ 
counting for human life, even if it did no more, 
would accomplish much toward reform. 

Reckoning on the fact that deaths from acci¬ 
dent to railroad and mining employes average 
over 5,000 a year, a total of 30,000 fatalities for 
all industries is probably not far astray. This is 
the estimate made by Prof. Seager. The num¬ 
ber of non-fatal accidents can only be guessed. 
Statisticians vary widely in their figures. F. L. 
Hoffman, an acknowledged authority, puts the 
175 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


total at 2,000,000, while Prof. R. P. Falkner 
thinks 500,000 amply big enough to cover the 
field. The truth may lie between the two. In 
any event it is sufficiently shameful to provoke 
our indignation and to promote our earnest en¬ 
deavor for betterment. Arthur B. Reeve is 
quoted by Scott Nearing as saying “It is not un¬ 
warrantable to assert that we send to the hospital 
or the graveyard one worker every minute of 
the year.” 

Prof. Irving Fisher estimates that the amount 
of annual sickness in the United States is equiva¬ 
lent to 3,000,000 people sick all the year round. 
He thinks about one-third of this number are in 
the working period of life. Much of this sickness 
is due to the unsanitary conditions of homes and 
places of employment, occupational diseases and 
similar preventable causes. The annual number 
of deaths in the United States ranges between 
one and a half and two million. It is assumed 
that from 600,000 to 750,000 are preventable or 
postponable. Out of ninety tabulated causes of 
death seven account for more than half the pre¬ 
ventable shortening of life, and these seven are 
charged with cutting eight years off the average 
duration of life in the United States. 

176 


INDUSTRIAL ILLS 

In considering the problem of unemployment 
we are again confronted by a deplorable lack of 
information. Scott Nearing, after a study of all 
available statistics, advances the belief that “In 
a normal year one man in every two will be un¬ 
employed, and that the unemployment will aver¬ 
age 60 days, or one-fifth of the working time. 
In a normal year the average wage earner under 
$750 has one chance in two of losing one-fifth 
of the working time.” Again he says “unem¬ 
ployment is always a factor in modern industry,” 
and Prof. Seager says, “The statement ‘any ca¬ 
pable man who really wants work can always 
find it’ is still sometimes heard. No doubt at one 
time in this country it was substantially true. 
To continue to believe it now, however, is to be¬ 
tray one’s ignorance of the industrial conditions 
that surround us.” 

The individual causes of unemployment are 
mainly sickness, accident and inefficiency; but we 
have seen that these are all social as well as 
individual, being the result of conditions over 
which the individual has little or no control. The 
industrial causes are business depression, labor 
troubles, seasonal trades, lack of stock and trans¬ 
portation facilities, and casual trades. 

177 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


It is obvious that the prevention of unemploy¬ 
ment involves a long and thorough work of read¬ 
justment. The shortening of the hours of labor 
will contribute toward solving the problem, since 
the shorter the working hours the greater the 
number of workers required to maintain the out¬ 
put. Raising the standard of living by paying 
better wages will lessen the amount of sickness 
and inefficiency. Accidents may be greatly re¬ 
duced in total by insistence upon the responsi¬ 
bility of employers and the provision for safety 
appliances, together with a mitigation of the 
overwork evil. Industrial causes are to be 
reached only through such changes in our system 
as will give greater stability to industry, promote 
friendlier relations between workers and employ¬ 
ers and correct the tendency to seasonal concen¬ 
tration in certain trades. 

The first step toward remedying these condi¬ 
tions is information and publicity. Provision 
for this is an important feature of the Progres¬ 
sive programme. “Full reports upon industrial 
accidents and diseases, and the opening to pub¬ 
lic inspection of all tallies, weights, measures and 
check systems on labor products,” is part of the 
platform demand. 


178 


INDUSTRIAL ILLS 


In the meantime, while readjustment is being 
affected, it is necessary to make provision against 
the consequences of accidents, sickness, unem- 
ployment and old age. In their present uncared 
for liberty to work social ravage they are a tre¬ 
mendous menace to the common welfare, an enor¬ 
mous economic waste. Upon this phase of the 
problem the Progressive programme says: 

“We pledge ourselves to work for standards 
of compensation for death by industrial acci¬ 
dents and injury and trade diseases which will 
transfer the burden of lost earnings from the 
families of working people to the industry, and 
thus to the community; the protection of home 
life against the hazards of sickness, irregular em¬ 
ployment and old age through the adoption of 
social insurance adapted to American use.” 

Here are two lines of remedial legislation:— 
Workmen’s compensation and industrial insur¬ 
ance. 

No new experiment is suggested. These ideas 
are commonplaces in many European countries 
and in Australia and New Zealand. We are 
behind the vanguard of civilization in such mat¬ 
ters. 


179 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


Employers’ liability laws in the United States 
have been far from satisfactory, unjust to labor 
and economically extravagant. In many in¬ 
stances they have been so limited in application 
by the old common law rules of “assumption of 
risk,” “contributory negligence” and “fellow ser¬ 
vant” that they have had little or no value for 
the employe. Theodore Roosevelt has fully dis¬ 
cussed this phase of the issue in articles contrib¬ 
uted to various publications. The tendency of 
the awakened social conscience is to abandon 
these unfair restrictions upon the wage-earner’s 
right to compensation. 

It seems peculiarly unjust to insist that a man 
who is forced by need to accept any job that is 
open to him assumes all the risks attendant upon 
his work, and thus frees the employer from re¬ 
sponsibility for his welfare. But that position 
has been taken by the courts time and time 
again, and many a crippled worker has been 
turned helplessly adrift, and many a widow left 
without compensation for the death of her hus¬ 
band. Of course society has had to bear the 
burden of this dependence in order that industry 
may go free. Nor is the burden well borne in a 
180 


INDUSTRIAL ILLS 


great majority of instances. Charity is not the 
right nor the wise solution for such a problem. 

Equally unjust is the rule that holds an em¬ 
ployer free from blame where it can be shown 
that the injury was occasioned through the fault 
of some other employe than the one hurt. The 
workman does not choose his fellow workmen. 
He is not free to hire and to dismiss. He must 
accept the risk of toiling with men who may be 
careless or inexperienceed, or go jobless and hun¬ 
gry. 

Contributory negligence has on the face of it 
a larger reasonableness, and yet it has been often 
employed so as to work the greatest injustice and 
hardship. Contributory negligence may be the 
result of overwork or physical inefficiency caused 
by low wages. 

The more enlightened view regards accidents 
and occupational diseases as incidental to indus¬ 
try—risks assumed by the employer as surely as 
the risk of a mechanical break-down or a fire. It 
views the consequences of them as a social prob- 
lef to be met by social responsibility. 

Out of existing laws are bred the claim fixer 
and the ambulance chaser, parasites of the worst 
181 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


type, feeding upon the misfortunes of the work¬ 
ers and the embarrassments of the employers. 
The average employers’ liability law is a prolific 
source of law suits, in which the plaintiff is at 
serious disadvantage through lack of means 
where-with to conduct his suit for damages. In 
the majority of instances he is compelled to em¬ 
ploy a lawyer on the basis of a contingent fee, 
and the bar is not lacking in lawj^ers who exploit 
such clients to the furthest limit. 

We need a system of compensation that will 
standardize the value of life and limb in industry 
and secure the automatic payment of a just 
award in case of injury or death. By such a 
system we would deprive the parasites of occupa¬ 
tion and free the courts from countless damage 
suits. We would give the worker a chance that 
is now impossible. 

During the last thirty years over a score of 
European countries have wholly abandoned the 
theory that the workman should bear the burden 
of industrial accidents, and laws have been 
passed providing for compensation through va¬ 
rious agencies. Germany’s plan is compulsory 
insurance. Austria follows the same method. 

182 


INDUSTRIAL ILLS 


Norway requires employers to insure their em¬ 
ployes in a state insurance department. Eng¬ 
land has a law that is generally conceded to be 
of peculiar excellence. It prescribes specifically 
the employer’s obligation to compensate his 
workers, and the amount of compensation he 
must pay, scaled according to the nature of the 
injury and the degree of dependence of those in¬ 
volved when the accident results fatally. It does 
not dictate the method by which the employer 
must meet the obligation. If he so chooses he 
may insure against it, in which event recovery 
may be had from the insurance company up to 
the limit of its contractual obligation in case the 
employer fails in business. A provision in the 
English law, making the employes preferred 
creditors up to $500, is a measure of protection 
in case the employer becomes insolvent without 
having insured. 

Constitutional difficulties have been experi¬ 
enced in the enactment of compensation meas¬ 
ures in this country, and some amendments to the 
fundamental law of the states may be necessary 
before satisfactory legislation can be put upon 
the statute books. 


183 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 

The problem of unemployment is more com¬ 
plex and difficult of solution. It will yield ulti¬ 
mately only to a complete readjustment that re¬ 
moves or greatly mitigates its chief causes. The 
tramp and the vagrant are social pariahs abnor¬ 
mal to a healthy condition of society, but not to 
be changed into desirable citizens by any mere 
surface reform. 

State and municipal labor exchanges, similar 
to those in Germany, may prove of value in bet¬ 
tering conditions. They would make it easier 
for the sincere job-seeker to find work, and 
would assist employers to obtain the quality of 
labor they needed by enumeration and classifica¬ 
tion of the unemployed. 

Industrial and farm colonies for the habitual 
vagrant, to which he may be committed by law, 
are another factor in solving the problem. 

Insurance against unemployment, proposed 
by the Progressive programme, is unquestion¬ 
ably a fair and salutary policjq but there are dif¬ 
ficulties in the way of its successful operation. 
Here the tramp figures as an undeserving appli¬ 
cant for its benefits. It is hard to limit it to the 
involuntarily idle. Labor unions in Great 
184 


INDUSTRIAL ILLS 


Britain and Europe have made a success of the 
plan, owing to their control of a well-organized 
membership. England has adopted a policy of 
unemployment insurance which is still in the ex¬ 
perimental stage. 

But some better system than our present 
policy of relief is assuredly necessary. Relief 
work is so obviously charity that it tends to de¬ 
stroy self-respect and to demoralize the recipi¬ 
ents. It may be necessary from purely humani¬ 
tarian impulses, in order to save from the im¬ 
mediate danger of starving or perishing from 
cold and exposure, to dole out the bread and cof¬ 
fee and groceries, the cast-off clothing and the 
financial pittance; but we have done nothing to 
help to a permanently higher living standard, 
which ought to be the aim of all such effort. 

The problem of dependent old age has received 
much attention in Europe, where it is more acute 
than in this country. It is, however, increasing 
in seriousness with us, and must be given consid¬ 
eration. 

Within the scope of this book it is impossible 
to review the various plans that have been 
adopted to meet this need. Germany handles it 
185 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


by compulsory insurance to which both employ¬ 
ers and employes contribute. Denmark, Eng¬ 
land, New Zealand and Australia have estab¬ 
lished old age pension systems on a national 
scale. The Australian plan may be described 
as more or less typical. 

The applicant must be at least 65 years of age; 
must have lived in the country for 25 years con¬ 
tinuously prior to the date of application; must 
he of good character, temperate and reputable 
for the five years preceding application; must 
not have deserted husband, wife or children, and 
must be in need of assistance. This last require¬ 
ment is defined as having not more than $260 
income and not owning more than $1500 worth 
of property. The maximum pension is $130 a 
year, and this is scaled down in proportion to the 
applicant’s income from other sources so as to 
make the total not more than $260. 

Victor Berger, the Socialist Representative 
from Milwaukee, introduced an old age pen¬ 
sions bill in the last Congress, on lines similar to 
the Australian law. 

This whole field of remedial legislation for in¬ 
dustrial ills is one that makes demand upon the 


186 


INDUSTRIAL ILLS 


best thought and most earnest effort of the Pro¬ 
gressives. The movement has called to its help 
the wisest experts on social questions in the coun¬ 
try, and a deliberate effort is being made to reach 
conclusions upon which sound legislation may be 
drafted suited to American conditions. A spe ¬ 
cial committee was sent to Europe in order to 
study the laws that have been adopted there. 
Never in the history of the country has any poli¬ 
tical movement commanded the cooperation of 
such an army of scientific and sympathetic stud¬ 
ents as is now engaged in working out a pro¬ 
gramme of human welfare and industrial justice 
for the workers of the United States. 


187 


CHAPTER XI 

Conserving Rural Life 

The farm is the source from which flow the 
revitalizing life currents of the Nation. It is a 
platitude that the best in the professional and 
industrial life of the country springs from con¬ 
tact with the soil. If this well of health, energy 
and vision should become dry we would be in a 
decade on the verge of national degeneracy. 
What is done for the farm is done for the good 
of all. The whole organic structure of our civili¬ 
zation is affected, both socially and economically, 
in things moral and in things material, by those 
conditions that obtain in the rural communities. 

The Progressive movement views the welfare 
of the farmer in this broad relation. It fits his 
problem into a big, coherent plan that recognizes 
the intimate connection of all the varied factors 
in our national life. 

Industrial revolution is transforming the 
world of agriculture as it has transformed the 
manufacturing world. Many can recall the time 
when all the work of the farm was done by man- 

188 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


ual labor assisted by horses and mules. Before 
that oxen were used. I have seen men reaping 
a field of wheat with an old hand cradle—a slow, 
toilsome and back-breaking process. I have seen 
the threshing floor and the flail. These were in 
remote regions, isolated from the world where 
invention has relegated such ancient tools to the 
museums. 

The first step toward modernization came 
when men began to breed horses and mules scien¬ 
tifically, and developed strains that were special¬ 
ly adapted to the work of the farm. It was then 
that the rule of thumb, the purely intuitive de¬ 
pendence upon the lore of the fields, and the 
credulous faith in the changes of the moon be¬ 
gan to retreat slowly before an advancing wave 
of exact knowledge. The next step was the ap¬ 
plication of mechanical ingenuity to farming. 
The reaper and binder, the threshing machine 
and other marvellous devices for the multiplying 
of human capacity appeared in the fields. The 
third step was the introduction of power—the 
traction engine drove the horse and mules from 
their long accustomed work. The work of trans¬ 
formation proceeds apace. 

189 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


Of course all this has meant a far-reaching 
change in the economic conditions of the farm. 
It has reduced the demand for unskilled labor, 
thus throwing back upon the cities men who were 
wont to find employment in the fields. It has 
made it possible for one man to do the work of 
ten. It has shortened the time necessary for the 
processes of agriculture by days. It has created 
a condition of competition in which the farmer of 
small capital is at a serious disadvantage, owing 
to his inability to possess the improved machin¬ 
ery that the man of larger means can employ. 

Coincidentally with the development of farm 
machinery the life of the rural communities has 
been tremendously influenced by educational 
work. As yet this is really in its infancy, but the 
magnificent promise of it is manifest in what has 
been accomplished. The Federal Department of 
Agriculture, the state departments, experi¬ 
mental farms, agricultural colleges and the pub¬ 
lic schools have done much to infuse the business 
of farming with the scientific spirit. Farmers 
have learned invaluable lessons concerning the 
nature of soil and its adaptability to various 
kinds of crops; the importance of drainage for 
190 


CONSERVING RURAL LIFE 


the conserving and distribution of moisture; the 
necessity of fertilization and the comparative 
worth of different fertilizers; the rotation of 
crops; intensified cultivation; the curing and 
preparation of farm products for market, and a 
score of other things vitally connected with 
profitable agriculture. 

In recent years land reclammation has been 
a significant feature of the rural movement. Ir¬ 
rigation and the preservation of the soil through 
conserving the forests have assumed increasing 
importance as factors in the problem. All these 
things have been combined to maintain agricul¬ 
tural production at a standard adequate to the 
needs of population. 

And yet in spite of what has been done, the 
tendency to a concentration of population in 
cities is unchecked. The drift from the fields to 
the urban centers is a serious phase of the na¬ 
tional life. In another decade, if there is not a 
recession of the tide, the aggregate urban popu¬ 
lation will exceed the rural. In 1900 the people 
in the cities constituted 40.5 per cent of the total; 
in 1910 they constituted 46.3 per cent. The 
total increase in the acreage of farm land during 
191 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


the same decade was only 4.2 per cent, in spite of 
all that had been done to make the handling of 
large acreage easy, and in spite of all reclamma- 
tion projects. Parallel with this showing of 
slow increase in area of cultivated territory is an 
extraordinary increase in the value of farm 
lands. The average value per acre in 1900 was 
$15.57. In 1910 it had jumped to $32.49, a gain 
of 108.7 per cent. Thus the “back to the farm” 
agitation is met by the fact that a return costs 
twice as much today as it did ten years ago. 

Another significant indication of the changing 
conditions in farm life is found in the increase of 
tenant farmers in the last ten years. In 1900 
there were 2,024,964 reported; in 1910 the num¬ 
ber had grown to 2,349,234, or an increase of 
slightly more than 16 per cent. In 1910 the 
number of farm owners who had mortgages on 
their farms was 1,311,364, or almost exactly one- 
third of all farm owners. 

The actual number of farms, apart from any 
consideration of acreage, increased in the decade 
by only 10.5 per cent, while the population of 
the United States for the same period showed an 
increase cff 21 per cent, or exactly double. 

192 


CONSERVING RURAL LIFE 


From these figures it will be seen that agricul¬ 
ture is not keeping pace with the Nation’s de¬ 
velopment, and this is a serious fact with import¬ 
ant bearing upon the welfare of the Nation. 

What are the causes? Where must we look 
for a remedy? How can we conserve rural life 
as the sweet and wholesome source of what is 
best and strongest in the life of the country? 

It was in order to gather information that 
would enable an intelligent answer to be made 
to these questions that Theodore Roosevelt, dur¬ 
ing his presidential term, created the Country 
Life C ommission. It was one of those big, far- 
seeing policies that marked this man as among 
the great constructive statesmen of his time. 

Excellent work was done by that commission, 
and its reports are authoritative sources of fact 
and sugestion. But Mr. Taft, in a moment of 
economy, abolished it. If the Progressive pro¬ 
gramme were given national enactment it would 
restore this commission, and give the interests of 
the farmer once more a paramount place in the 
politics of the Nation. 

Undoubtedly one of the chief disintegrating 
influences in the rural community is the lack of 
193 



THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


organization of the farm life as a business and as 
a social institution. We have seen the tremen¬ 
dous significance of the word cooperation in oth¬ 
er phases of national life. It stands for the re¬ 
organizing principle that means greater efficien¬ 
cy, larger opportunity, more evenly distributed 
prosperity and a better chance for happiness for 
everybody. Cooperation must be translated in¬ 
to the needs of the farming community. 

Another influence that militates against the 
farm is the specious appeal of the city to its 
youth. 

The lure of the city is largely the lure of life. 
The youth of the rural districts conceive the city 
as a center of magic and a field of boundless op¬ 
portunity. Its glamor fascinates them, and at 
a distance conceals the hideous perils and the 
possible suffering that await their unaccustomed 
entrance within its web of complex interests and 
demands. Against this lure must be opposed 
such a bettering of rural conditions, such an im¬ 
provement of opportunities for an enriched life 
as will counteract and outweigh the deceptive ur¬ 
ban promise. 

The Progressive programme proposes the pro- 
194 


CONSERVING RURAL LIFE 


motion of rural cooperation as the method by 
which farm life may be reorganized on a basis of 
greater profit and larger educational and social 
opportunity. 

In this programme the activity of the farmer 
himself is absolutely essential. Not a little has 
been done on his initiative to make a beginning, 
but it has had small encouragement as yet 
through governmental agencies, and we are still 
far from approximating the complete recogni¬ 
tion of the importance of agricultural interests 
that has been reached in other countries. Gran¬ 
ges, equity societies and other organizations have 
exercised a powerful influence in preparing the 
way for more thorough cooperative work. 

There are four main lines for cooperation in 
the rural community upon which much may be 
accomplished to better conditions of living. 
They are production, marketing, purchase and 
neighborhood improvement. 

Cooperation in production involves the joint 
ownership, by farmers of small capital, of the 
modern machinery for farm work. Where one 
farmer may find the possession of a traction en¬ 
gine and other costly implements beyond his 
195 



THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


means, by combination with others he can obtain 
the use of these advantageous accessories. In 
like manner farmers may unite to establish 
cheese factories and canning factories for their 
own products, keeping in their own hands the op ¬ 
portunity for profit so frequently passed on to 
others. 

Cooperation in marketing contemplates a mu ¬ 
tual arrangement for the gathering, storing and 
disposal of their produce under the most profi¬ 
table circumstances. It compells the buyer to 
deal with the producers collectively, instead of 
as individuals, and thus eliminates the possibil¬ 
ity of pitting one farmer against another in the 
attempt to force a low price. It opens the way 
for large shipments and the getting of a better 
rate from the common carrier. 

Cooperation in pu^diasing merely reverses the 
situation, and gives the farmer the advantage of 
collective buying in large quantities. 

Cooperative factories, warehouses, grain ele¬ 
vators and stores are features of this combination 
of interests that have proved of immense value in 
many instances. This kind of mutual effort is 
not new nor even uncommon, but its possibilities 
19b 


CONSERVING RURAL LIFE 

as yet are only touched. Much remains to be 
done in the teaching of the farmer the business 
principles that make such cooperation successful, 
and in facilitating its practise. The existence of 
trusts and combinations in control of practically 
everything the farmer produces has made necess¬ 
ary the adoption of similar tactics for his own 
defence. The legal problem is involved in the 
readjustment of agriculture to meet the new 
conditions, and the regulation of cooperation in 
this field will be as necessary as in that of com¬ 
merce and industry. It is important that in its 
infancy a programme should be defined for the 
development of the cooperative phase. Once 
the farmers as a class become imbued with the 
principle of combination its growth is likely to 
be rapid, and the same perils will attend its un¬ 
regulated development as have marked the un¬ 
controlled evolution of big business. 

In Denmark, where cooperation among farm¬ 
ers has reached a very high state of develop¬ 
ment, especially in dairying, the Government 
plays an important role in its encouragement. 
It has fostered the organization of coperative so¬ 
cieties. In order to exercise a sort of supervis- 
197 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


ory care the Royal Danish Society exists as a 
Government institution. It supplies an inspec¬ 
tor for every society that has not less than 1,000 
cows. He visits each farmer every 18 days, and 
inspects the condition of his dairy, offering such 
advice and suggestions as may be deemed neces¬ 
sary, and making report to the Royal Society. 
An extraordinary standard of efficiency is thus 
maintained. 

Cooperation in neighborhood improvement 
opens a wide range for effort. It implies the 
wider use of the existing facilities for social bet¬ 
terment, and the extension of such service as is 
afforded by the schools, the libraries, the tele¬ 
phone, roads, trolley lines and other features of 
modern life. 

To take the best of what is in the city to the 
country is part of the work to be done. To 
bring literature and art and music within reach 
of those who live by tilling the soil; to make the 
theatre contribute its share of pleasure, and all 
the time to educate, educate, educate, so that the 
glittering temptations of the city will lose their 
charms for minds that are instructed and occu¬ 
pied with better things—this is all essential to 
the work of readjustment. 

198 


CONSERVING RURAL LIFE 


Here, as elsewhere, the home is the strategic 
center. The farmer must be encouraged to 
make his home attractive to his sons and daugh¬ 
ters. Not all the money should be devoted to 
the purchase of labor-saving machinery for the 
field; some should go to making the work of the 
kitchen and the laundry easier. Even more im¬ 
portant than a piano or an organ for the parlor, 
are conveniences for the housewife—the kitchen 
cabinet, the stove with an oven that does not re¬ 
quire the cook to get down on her knees every 
time she bakes, the vacuum cleaner and the wash¬ 
ing machine. I have known farmer’s wives who 
read of all these things in the advertising pages 
of the magazines, and grew old and rheumatic 
sighing for them, while their husbands had all 
the latest contrivances in field and barn. This 
should not be. Make the home-work easier; 
make the home life more attractive. This is the 
beginning of rural conservation. 

Hand-in-hand with this goes the improvement 
of the rural school. Today the ideal is the con ¬ 
solidated school. It is the evolution of the little 
“deestrick” schoolhouse. Several district schools, 
so often small and poorly equipped, ugly and uri- 


199 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


comfortable, are united into one commodious, 
well-equipped school centrally located. Usually 
a site is chosen where several roads intersect. 
By this plan all the advantages of proper grad¬ 
ing may be obtained, better teachers can be em¬ 
ployed, and the combined strength of several dis¬ 
tricts is able to maintain one well furnished plant 
at a degree of efficiency impossible when the 
available means is distributed over three or four. 

I have in mind such a school, admirably con¬ 
ceived. It has light and airy class-rooms, an 
ample play-ground, and a large space reserved 
for an experimental truck-garden. In an ad¬ 
joining building provision is made for manual 
training and domestic science. The upper floor 
of the school is one large room suitable for neigh¬ 
borhood meetings. Such an institution will ex¬ 
ercise an untold influence for good in the com¬ 
munity. It will enlist the interest and sympathy 
of the parents, and make the life of the farm at¬ 
tractive to the children. 

The introduction of domestic science and man¬ 
ual training in the rural schools ought to be ac¬ 
complished as speedily as possible. The chief 
thing our educational system needs is a direct re- 
200 


CONSERVING RURAL LIFE 


lation to the actual problems and tasks of life. 
The girls of our farm homes should be taught 
those things that will develope an intelligent in¬ 
terest in the art and science of the home; the boys 
should learn to be the carpenters, the mechanics 
and the architects of the farm. The doing of 
things, and the power that comes from knowh 
edge of how to do them—that is what puts in¬ 
terest and zest into life for youth as well as age. 
The boy who can construct a creditable, well- 
planned and well built hen house, or make his 
own incubator, or repair a pump, or do a dozen 
things around a farm, will find farm life worth 
while, and will be much more likely to stick to it 
than the boy who has merely a smattering of aca¬ 
demic knowledge and no ready means of putting 
it to use. 

The teaching of scientific agriculture is a most 
important factor. A splendid impetus has been 
given this work recently by the organization of 
boj^s’ corn clubs, and of tomato clubs for the 
girls. Boys are learning to double and treble 
the acre productivity in corn and other crops, 
and girls are learning how to grow and to can 
tomatoes and other garden products. Nor does 
201 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


the value of this work end with the instruction of 
the younger generation. The remarkable suc¬ 
cess of boys and girls has quickened the interest 
of the adult farmers, and many who clung con¬ 
servatively to traditional rtiethods, turning an 
indifferent ear to the advice of experts, are now 
revising their system of cultivation and adopting 
the better plan of science. It is another illustra¬ 
tion of the old Scriptural saying, “a little child 
shall lead them.” 

It is significant that business men in the city 
have been interested through this juvenile work 
in the problems and possibilities of the farm as 
never before. They are being taught the inti¬ 
mate relation between the rural community and 
the city, and another link is being forged in the 
cooperative chain, the chain of better under¬ 
standing and mutual confidence, that will bind 
society into a helpfully progressive whole. 

One of the most practical questions that de¬ 
mands consideration in the work of improving 
the farmer’s lot is that of facilitating rural cre¬ 
dit. It is manifest that the great work of build¬ 
ing up the agricultural interests, some of the pos¬ 
sibilities of which we have been discussing, de- 
202 


CONSERVING RURAL LIFE 


pends upon the ability of the individual farmer 
to finance his own projects. It must be made 
easier for the thrifty, industrious man of limited 
capital to obtain such financial help as he may 
need in order to promote the development of his 
farm in its profitable possibilities. 

We have referred to the assistance given by 
the Government of Denmark to its farming 
community. Denmark has, for many years, 
been the farmer’s banker in the matter of loans. 
It encourages small holdings on the part of ag¬ 
ricultural workers. Every man or unmarried 
woman who is an agricultural worker is entitled, 
on certain conditions, to receive a loan from the 
State for the purchase of a small holding. This 
holding must not exceed in value $2,144, and the 
loan may amount to nine-tenths of the value. 
The State takes a mortgage on the holding, in¬ 
cluding buildings, implements, live stock etc., 
and charges 3 per cent interest per annum. The 
loan is exempt from installments for the first 
five years, after which the payment of interest 
and installments is made half yearly. This prin¬ 
ciple is further extended to Government sup¬ 
port of credit societies which are organized for 
203 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


the purpose of purchasing large agricultural 
properties that may he parcelled out to small 
owners. The societies are organized under Gov¬ 
ernment supervision. Through them and with 
the aid of the Government the man who is pur¬ 
chasing a small holding can borrow up to the full 
value of the property, thus leaving him free to 
use whatever resources he may possess for buy- 
ing live stock and implements. 

Obviously this system in many of its features 
is not adapted to American use, but it affords 
an interesting illustration of how the Govern¬ 
ment may promote the interests of agriculture 
and encourage the taking up and cultivation of 
land by men who would otherwise be forced to 
join the class of wage-earning dependents. 

Mr. B. F. Yoakum, prominent in railroad cir¬ 
cles and a writer on economic and industrial 
questions, has suggested a plan that he believes 
could be adopted with great advantage in this 
country. He takes for his model the Credit 
Foncier of France. Briefly he proposes an in¬ 
stitution of semi-governmental character, having 
on its board of directors the Secretary of Agri¬ 
culture, the Secretary of the Treasury and tw'o 
204 


CONSERVING RURAL LIFE 


other representatives of the Government, and 
organized as a stock company with $50,000,000 
capital, $5,000,000 to be sold at not less than par, 
and additional amounts not exceeding $5,000,- 
000 to be issued in any one year, as approved by 
the directors. Provision could be made for 
branch organizations in the different states. 
The objects of the company would be to loan 
money on mortgages, not exceeding 50 per cent 
of the ascertained value, in amounts to be paid 
in easy installments or on long terms; to pur¬ 
chase and sell land mortgages, bonds or land 
debentures, with authority to loan produce grow¬ 
ers’ cooperative associations where properly or¬ 
ganized and incorporated under the laws of the 
state giving protection to lenders. 

Unquestionably this or some similar plan will 
be evolved. The question is one which the small 
army of experts identified with the Progressive 
movement will give earnest attention. 

The ideas suggested in this chapter indicate the 
lines upon which a political party, seized with a 
sense of its social responsibility and making ser¬ 
vice the aim of its existence, may accomplish 
much to reestablish agriculture upon a firm basis, 
205 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


and to foster the life of the rural community so 
as to check the urban drift and to increase the at¬ 
tractiveness of the farm as a career for intelligent 
youth and an opportunity for the making of 
beautiful and happy homes. 

No programme of social readjustment can ig¬ 
nore the problem of the farm as a factor of fun¬ 
damental importance. 


CHAPTER XII 


The “Trusts” and “Big” Business 

The problem that confronts us in this chapter 
is responsible for more confused thinking and 
bewildering discussion than any other that has 
arisen out of present day conditions. 

That business in its modern form demands a 
restatement of governmental relationship has 
been made clear, I think, in earlier chapters. 
We have seen that it is one of the critical points 
requiring a readjustment of the social organism 
in order to promote the healthful growth of the 
Nation and the welfare of all the people. 

The Republican party advanced as its pro¬ 
gramme the use of the Sherman law, together 
with auxiliary legislation of a kind to clarify its 
intent, for the purpose of preventing monopoly. 
The Sherman law was given fair test under the 
administration of President Taft as an instru¬ 
ment of this policy. The test produced a con¬ 
tinual clamor of prosecution and a series of en¬ 
tertaining legal pyrotechnics. Certain trusts 
were “dissolved”—notably the Standard Oil and 
207 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


Tobacco trusts—whereupon their securities 
mounted in value; their undisturbed owners 
added millions of unearned wealth overnight, 
and the people found themselves footing the bill 
in higher prices for the commodities these indus¬ 
tries produced. 

It is exceedingly doubtful if the ostensible ob¬ 
ject of the so-called dissolutions—the restora¬ 
tion of competition—was measurably achieved. 
It is certainly true that the wage-earner and the 
consumer have not profited to the extent of a 
dollar by the Republican crusade. 

The Democratic party, more strongly im¬ 
pressed than even the Republicans with the de¬ 
sirability of competition, proposes to eliminate 
the idea of “reasonable restraint” from the Sher¬ 
man law, and to precipitate itself in implacable 
warfare against all business combination. The 
outcome of such propaganda must be worse than 
that pursued by the Republicans. It will result 
in a disastrous disturbance of business to no good 
end, and its impossibilism will become more 
manifest with every step. 

Neither of the old parties has gotten the 
broader view, the more enlightened conception 
208 


THE “TRUSTS” AND “BIG” BUSINESS 

of business that may be termed the social view. 
Each is trying to deal with the problem as if it 
were a separate and distinct phase of the Na¬ 
tion's life, an abnormal excrescence to be treated 
by local applications. 

But the Progressive movement approaches the 
problem from a deeper understanding of its na¬ 
ture; it has gone back of symptoms to consider 
causes. It does not stop short at a high and un¬ 
just tariff and say, with President Wilson, 
“Here is the source of all our ills." It recogniz¬ 
es the tariff, in its Republican guise, as a tool of 
special privilege, but not a cause of the trust and 
monopoly. 

The Progressive view-point regards business 
as a function of the social organism; so-called 
big business and the trusts are the outcome of 
economic and industrial evolution, a normal de¬ 
velopment of the common life of the country. 
We are all interested in the welfare of business. 
We can serve no desirable end by seeking to 
check its growth as long as that growth is con¬ 
trolled by laws that comprehend the general 
good. The trust is not the work of individual 
genius, nor yet any group of supermen in indus- 
209 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


try or finance. It is the outgrowth of onr indus¬ 
trial life, in which all have had a share—the 
wage-earner, the consumer and the capitalist. 
Therefore it is under obligation to all, and must 
justify its existence by sharing with the public 
the fruits of its success. Accordingly the Pro¬ 
gressives seek neither to protect big business as a 
stronghold of privilege, nor yet to destroy it as 
an efficient form of industry and commerce. 
Their aim is to conserve all its possibilities for 
social usefulness as an effective factor in a great¬ 
er and more justly distributed national prosper¬ 
ity. 

Frankly recognizing the economic conditions 
that make for big business, and the social value 
of industry organized upon a large scale for pro¬ 
duction and distribution, the Progressive move¬ 
ment proposes a programme that will give little 
business an opportunity to grow bigger and im- 
pell big business to be honest; and by honesty is 
meant more than a mere technical obedience to 
the law of business as it stands; more than scru¬ 
pulously fair dealing with competitors—it in¬ 
cludes an acknowledgement of obligation to the 
people as they are represented by the workers 
and consumers. 


210 


THE “TRUSTS” AND “BIG” BUSINESS 


This point of view is sane and in harmony 
with the philosophy that underlies the Progress¬ 
ive movement. To detach big business from the 
social organism; to look upon it as an extraor¬ 
dinary phenomenon, the product of unusual fi- 
nancial genius possessed by a few men of super¬ 
ior mentality is not only unsound and unphiloso- 
phic—it is dangerous. It encourages the belief 
of these men that they are entitled to privileges 
which others are denied, and that they are above 
the law which governs the mass of men. It leads 
the mass to look upon big business as separated 
from their interests, a social and economic mons¬ 
trosity feeding and fattening upon the people, 
and so provokes a spirit of unreasoning antagon¬ 
ism, easily convertible into anarchy. 

The Progressive movement draws a clear dis¬ 
tinction between the incidental evils of our in¬ 
dustrial system and the nature of the system it¬ 
self. Because the growth of the trust has been 
accompanied by much that is oppressive; be¬ 
cause men have hastened normal and orderly 
processes of economic evolution by arbitrary and 
often unscrupulous methods, those who cannot 
see beneath these ills mistake them for an inher- 
211 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


ent and inseparable feature of the modern phase 
of business, and insist upon a return to conditions 
that prevailed fifty or more years ago as the only 
remedy. 

It is as if men who have been impressed with 
the horrors of accidents resulting from the use 
of railroads, trolley cars and automobiles should 
urge the abandonment of all these modern meth¬ 
ods of transit and a return to the days of the ox¬ 
cart. The madness of such a proposal is suffi¬ 
ciently obvious to need no comment; but it is nob 
a whit more mad than the proposal to abandon 
ail that has been wrought out in the application 
of the cooperative idea to business by a return to 
the era of cut-throat competition. 

Suppose such a return as the Democratic par¬ 
ty proposes were possible—and I do not believe 
it is—what would be the result? Competition is 
a stage of progression ; in its very nature it can¬ 
not be permanent. It means struggle, rivalry, 
conflict of interest and effort. Where there is 
conflict there is eventually the elimination of the 
weak and the survival of the fit. Thus the re¬ 
appearance of combination, of the trust, is pre¬ 
destined. They are the inevitable, the inescap- 
212 


THE ‘‘TRUSTS” AND “BIG” BUSINESS 


able products of competition. Is there anything 
to be gained in traveling around in a circle in an 
effort to catch our own tail? 

“Our purpose is not to destroy, but to restore,” 
says President Wilson. This policy applied to 
industry means reaction. The Progressive pur¬ 
pose is not to restore nor to destroy, but to con¬ 
serve, to develope and to readjust. It is looking 
forward, not backward. It is not groping in the 
beginnings of the Nineteenth century to find a 
remedy for the ills of the Twentieth. It is not 
satisfied with restoring lost liberties and oppor¬ 
tunities. It is seeking to create new liberties 
and larger opportunities. It proposes to take 
the material that has come to it in this wonderful 
century and make the most of it, with the knowl¬ 
edge and experience that are the inheritance and 
acquirement of the living generation. 

Coming from the general to the particular, 
from the principle to its application, the Pro¬ 
gressive movement approaches this task with a 
definite programme, the central feature of which 
is the proposal for a Federal administrative com¬ 
mission with jurisdiction over industrial con¬ 
cerns engaged in interstate commerce. The 
213 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


commission is to exercise authority similar to that 
enjoyed by the Interstate Commerce Commis¬ 
sion in its regulation of the railroads, or to that 
employed by the Government in its supervision 
of national banks. 

It is to be the agency through which the Gov¬ 
ernment may instruct and discipline business in 
the new sense of social responsibility. One of the 
first ends sought will be the correction of those 
ills incidental to modern industry. The plat¬ 
form of the Progressive party describes them in 
general terms as “monopoly of national resour¬ 
ces, stock watering, unfair competition and un¬ 
fair privileges, and sinister influences on the pub¬ 
lic agencies of state and Nation.” 

These are the abnormalities of modern busi¬ 
ness fostered by a feverish greed for gain, but 
not beyond the reach of wise and courageous 
treatment. They have been developed by the 
very spirit of that competitive system which the 
Democrats propose to restore. “All is fair in 
love and war—and business,” is the revised ver¬ 
sion of the old saying. In a system where men 
are battling, not merely for supremacy, but for 
survival, they will not parley long over ethics. 

214 


THE “TRUSTS” AND “BIG” BUSINESS 


Competition is the struggle of a savage individ¬ 
ualism. It utterly deadens the social conscience 
and obscures the social viewpoint. It is only 
when the struggle has proceeded far enough to 
eliminate many of those engaged in it, and to 
substitute groups for individuals, and classes for 
groups, that the social conscience receives a 
quickening and regains its vision. 

The consolidating of the employing, or capi¬ 
talist, interests of the country has been paralleled 
naturally by a consolidating of the labor inter¬ 
ests. We have seen as a consequence an arrayal 
of classes. The Socialist party is the expression 
of the working class movement; the Republican 
party has been the expression of the capitalist 
class, and the Democratic party, in large degree, 
the expression of the middle-class—the class 
from which the many are being constantly 
pushed back and down into the working class, 
and from which every now and then a few es¬ 
cape into the independent capitalist group. 

We have reached the parting of the waysjpoli- 
tically and economically. The hour has come 
when the Nation must choose whether it will fol¬ 
low the road of class strife, or accept the media- 
215 




THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 

tion of the Progressive party as the exponent, 
not of class consciousness, but of social conscious¬ 
ness. 

If the philosophy and programme of the Pro¬ 
gressive movement are rejected I can see no es¬ 
cape from an ultimate drawing of the issue di¬ 
rectly; between the workers and the owners, be¬ 
tween labor and capital. The Democratic poli¬ 
cy of a return to competition may delay the cri¬ 
sis, but it cannot avert it. It will merely confuse 
the situation, causing vast disturbance and seri¬ 
ous loss. 

The choice is between revolution on a class 
conscious basis and readjustment on a socially 
conscious basis. 

The Socialist advocates the former, the Pro¬ 
gressives the latter. Both recognize the exist¬ 
ence of injustice and both protest against it; but 
the Progressive movement recognizes also a legi • 
timate function for the capitalist and proposes 
to mediate in the interests of mutual service for 
the good of all, whereas the Socialist would wipe 
out the capitalist on the theory that he is a use¬ 
less factor in society. 

The alert and intelligent member of the capi- 
216 



THE “TRUSTS” AND “BIG” BUSINESS 

talist group is aware of the fact that he and his 
class are under surveillance today; that they are 
distrusted by many of the people, and that the 
situation demands, not an arrogant defiance of 
this critical attitude, but an earnest effort to jus¬ 
tify their place in the social organism. 

The opportunity to do this is offered by the 
Progressive movement. The commission it pro¬ 
poses is the means through which it will help to 
bring about a peaceful readjustment and a bet¬ 
ter understanding. 

It is not necessary here to discuss in detail the 
evils that are generally admitted to be incidental 
features of our latter day business development. 
We may confine ourselves to a consideration of 
the methods by which the Progressives propose 
to apply the underlying principles of their phil¬ 
osophy to the elimination of these evils. 

The Progressive platform, while recognizing 
that “the concentration of modern business, in 
some degree, is both inevitable and necessary for 
national and international business efficiency,” 
declares that “the existing concentration of vast 
wealth under a corporate system unguarded and 
uncontrolled by the nation has put in the hands 
217 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


of a few men enormous, secret, irresponsible 
power over the daily life of the citizen—a power 
insufferable in a free government and certain of 
abuse.” 

Now here we must distinguish things that dif¬ 
fer. It is not necessarily the concentration, nor 
the corporate system, nor the power that is 
feared; but the existence of these things “un¬ 
guarded and uncontrolled”—their secret irre¬ 
sponsibility. 

“We do not fear commercial power,” s ays the 
platform, “but we insist that it shall be exercised 
openly, under publicity, supervision and regu¬ 
lation of the most efficient sort, which will pre- 
serve its good while eradicating and preventing 
its evils.” 

This is the distinctive feature of the Progress¬ 
ive movement’s attitude toward big business and 
all business. It does not propose to set an ar¬ 
bitrary limit to growth; it does not propose Uto 
make size an offence; but it does propose to pre¬ 
vent growth by oppression, to deprive unscrupu¬ 
lous business of its club and gun and its other 
weapons of warfare against competitors, and 
wholesomely to discipline it in a sense of social 
responsibility, 


218 


THE “TRUSTS” AND “BIG” BUSINESS 


Publicity, supervision and regulation are the 
three remedies to be applied. 

Of the merit of the first there can be no ques¬ 
tion; of the need for the second little doubt can 
exist in any mind; as to the character and extent 
of the third there is room for debate, and the final 
determination must be the result of careful ex¬ 
periment, a step or so at a time, as has been the 
case in the Government’s dealing with the rail¬ 
roads. 

The principle of publ icity has already been 
given recognition, in some cases voluntarily, in 
more as the result of legislation. The co rpora - 
tion tax law, enacted by Congress, involves sub¬ 
mission to Government scrutiny of much of the 
inside facts concerning the operations of inter¬ 
state business enterprises. Under the Sherman 
law a sort of supervision and regulation are ex¬ 
ercised, but they are of a type and method that 
result in the maximum of confusion and distur¬ 
bance with the minimum of good. 

The commission proposed by the Progressives 
would save resort to courts, tedious trials, ap¬ 
peals and rehearings, with all the business uncer¬ 
tainty that obtains while the process continues. 

219 



THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


Its form of regulation would be sympathetic 
rather than antagonistic. Men would not he 
stamped as law-breakers until they had refused 
to comply with the recommendations of the com¬ 
mission for the amendment of their business 
methods. It is an injustice to assume that all 
men who have employed means for acquiring 
wealth and fostering enterprises that are now 
regarded as anti-social are actuated by a male¬ 
volent desire to evade and break laws, or to op¬ 
press their fellows. 

The Progressive movement assumes the innate 
decency of men. It assumes that business men 
would prefer to conduct their affairs in a manner 
that would win for them the confidence of the 
masses of the people, than in a fashion to invite 
their suspicion and enmity. It assumes that the 
spirit of fair-play is dormant in the hearts of all, 
and will awaken to a new and stronger demon¬ 
stration of its beauty under conditions designed 
to stimulate it and to make it easier of operation. 

Nor is the Progressive movement mistaken in 
this confidence. Thousands of business men will 
welcome the kind of supervision and regulation 
that affords guidance for them in the conduct of 
220 


THE “TRUSTS” AND “BIG” BUSINESS 


their affairs, pointing the way to compliance with 
the law and to social cooperation, rather than 
waiting until wrong has been done, and then 
hauling the offenders into court. They will wel¬ 
come such regulation because it will put them all 
upon an even footing and so eliminate the pro¬ 
vocation to that kind of competition which is both 
demoralizing and destructive. The y wil l wel¬ 
come it because it will allay public alarm, quiet 
public suspicion and give to business a placid sea 
upon which to bring its ventures into port. 

Such regulation exists in many states for pub¬ 
lic utility corporations, and those engaged in this 
type of enterprise are not only reconciled to be ¬ 
ing under state control, but actually pleased 
with the stability it has given to their business 
and the better feeling it has promoted between 
themselves and the people whom they serve. 

What is true of the utilities commission in the 
state may prove equally true of an industrial 
commission in the Nation. 

It is the realization of this that has won for the 
Progressive movement the active support of men 
prominently connected with big business enter¬ 
prises. Men of clear vision have seen the utter 
221 






THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


impossibility of a prolonged continuance of ex¬ 
isting conditions. A revolutionary crisis im¬ 
pends if some safe and rational and just solution 
of the pressing economic and industrial problems 
of the day is not found. It is useless to deny 
that a spirit of class antagonism has been aroused 
in recent years. No man of honest intelligence 
will dispute the fact that injustice exists, that 
suffering and want are hideously common, that 
the increasing disparity in the lot of those who 
are uppermost and those who are lowermost is 
throwing the social organism out of gear and out 
of balance, with disaster threatening if an equil¬ 
ibrium is not restored. Self-interest, apart from 
any higher motive, demands some better system. 
But enlightened self-interest is merely another 
name for intelligent altruism. It is the realiza¬ 
tion of the fundamental truth that the welfare 
of the individual depends upon the welfare of the 
whole society of individuals, or, as Theodore 
Roosevelt sometimes puts it “This can never be 
a very good country for any of us to live in until 
it is a good country for all of us to live in.” 


222 





CHAPTER XIII 
The Judiciaky and the People 
When Theodore Roosevelt declared his belief 
in what has been termed “the recall of judicial 
decisions” there was an immediate storm of criti¬ 
cism and disapproval. This was regarded in 
conservative quarters as the radical policy of a 
dangerous demagogue. It was predicted that he 
had dealt the death blow to his career, and had 
stamped the movement, of which he became later 
the most conspicuous exponent, as a dangerous 
and revolutionary propaganda which the sober 
sense of the American people would reject. 

Since then there has been a remarkable turn¬ 
ing of public sentiment toward the support of his 
position. Not a few states have gone further 
than he proposed, and have adopted the recall of 
judges as a principle of their political machin¬ 
ery. Col. Roosevelt and other Progressive lead¬ 
ers are not opposed to this more radical measure, 
but they have offered the recall of decisions as a 
substitute in the belief that it will prove effective 
223 




THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


in many instances where the personal recall 
might fail or work injustice. 

During the special session of Congress, called 
by President Wilson for enacting tariff legisla¬ 
tion, we were given the interesting and unex¬ 
pected spectacle of a Democratic Senator, him¬ 
self a lawyer of unusual ability and once vice- 
presidential nominee of his party, declaring in 
the Senate that certain conditions obtaining in 
this country were justification for the recall poli¬ 
cy advocated by the Progressive movement. 
Senator Kern, who expressed this view, does not 
approve the recall of judicial decisions or the re¬ 
call of judges, but he recognizes that there is 
provocation on the part of the people for their 
demand that the courts be made more amen¬ 
able to popular control, or rather to the control 
of the enlightened social conscience. 

Unquestionably much of the earlier opposition 
to the recall of judicial decisions was due to mis¬ 
understanding of the exact nature of the propos¬ 
al, and a failure to realize the need that gave it 
origin. 

As a basis for further explanation and discus¬ 
sion it will be well to give here the exact language 
224 



THE JUDICIARY AND THE PEOPLE 


of the Progressive national platform dealing 
with this reform. It is as follows: 

“The Progressive party demands such restric¬ 
tion of the power of the courts as shall l eave t o 
the people the ultimate authority to determine 
fundamental questions of social welfare and pub¬ 
l ic po licy. To secure this end it pledges itself to 
provide: 

“1. That when an act, passed under the po¬ 
lice power of the state is held unconstitutional 
under the state constitution by the courts, the 
people, after an ample interval for deliberation, 
shall have an opportunity to vote on the question 
whether they desire an act to become law not¬ 
withstanding such decision. 

“2. That every decision of the highest Ap¬ 
pellate Court of a state declaring an act of the 
Legislature unconstitutional on the ground of 
the violation of the Federal constitution shall be 
subject to the same review by the Supreme Court 
of the United States as is now accorded to de¬ 
cisions sustaining such legislation.” 

In these proposals two points are met:—First, 
the question of constitutionality of legislation un¬ 
der the state constitution; second, the question of 
22 5 





THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


constitutionality of state legislation under the 
Federal constitution. It will be noted that the 
principle of recall, or of popular submission, is 
sought only for decisions based upon the inter¬ 
pretation of state constitutions. The Supreme 
Court of the United States is not to be subjected 
to this form of review. 

Further it will be noted that the recall is asked 
only for decisions affecting legislation, “Passed 
under the police power of the state.” 

It will be necessary to define what is meant by 
“the police power” in order to make clear to the 
lay mind the exact limitations of the reform pro¬ 
posed. 

By far the larger part of the provisions of the 
state and Federal constitutions are specific prov¬ 
isions, of such definite and explicit character 
that their meaning is ascertainable without any 
great difficulty and without much margin for de¬ 
bate or question. They give express form to the 
will of the people at the time the constitution 
was adopted, and, if not amended, must be con¬ 
sidered to represent the popular intent as they 
now stand. In precise terms they empower or 
forbid the doing of certain things by some de- 
226 


THE JUDICIARY AND THE PEOPLE 


partment of government, or by some group of 
the people. 

It is not proposed that the authority of the 
court to interpret or apply these specific provis¬ 
ions of the constitution shall be subject to any 
popular review or reversal. 

There is a provision, however, in the Federal 
constitution and in practically all the state con¬ 
stitutions that lacks this definiteness of language 
and precise quality of meaning and application. 
It is open to various interpretation, as actual ex¬ 
perience proves, and its interpretation is almost 
wholly based upon the nature of facts and cir¬ 
cumstances extraneous to the law itself. It will 
derive its interpretation from the view-point of 
the court, affected by the sentiment of the time 
influenced by precedent and other considerations 
that are not to be found in the explicit letter of 
the law. This provision is known generally as 
that of “due process,” and is thus set forth in 
Article Y of the Amendments to the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States:— 

“No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or 
property without due process of law.” 

The Fourteenth Amendment gives the Fed- 

227 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


eral authority a sovereign right to the enforce- 
ment of this guaranty in the following lan¬ 
guage :— 

“No state shall.deprive any person of 

life, liberty or property without due process of 
law.” 

Most of the state constitutions have embodied 
this provision in their language. 

Now the fact is that this provision has been 
subject to a variety of interpretations, frequently 
conflicting. Thus state courts have held certain 
legislation to be unconstitutional under its re¬ 
strictions that the Supreme Court has held to be 
constitutional; again legislation of precisely sim¬ 
ilar character has been held constitutional in one 
state and unconstitutional in another, in both 
cases the decision turning upon the judicial un¬ 
derstanding of this particular provision. 

Hence it is obvious that there is in this provi¬ 
sion a latitude not shared by others that are more 
specific, and that its interpretation is not a mat¬ 
ter of the precise meaning of language, but rath¬ 
er of judicial view-point. 

The “police power” of the state is largely af¬ 
fected by the use made of “due process,” 

228 



THE JUDICIARY AND THE PEOPLE 


Generally “due process” is understood, in its 
relation to life and liberty, to mean procedure 
that is in accord with fundamental ideas of fair¬ 
ness and regularity, such as due notice, opportu¬ 
nity to be heard and orderly course of action. 
In relation to property it is assumed to imply 
that property shall not he taken by any legisla¬ 
tive act which violates fundamental ideas or 
morality and justice. 

But fundamental conceptions of fairness, mor¬ 
ality and justice have no absolute or permanent 
form. They broaden with the enlightenment of 
conscience and adjust themselves to the changed 
social and economic conditions of the time. 
Thus, in 1872, the Supreme Court rendered a de¬ 
cision in the so-called “Slaughter-House Cases” 
involving the regulative power of the State of 
Louisiana as affected by the “due process” provi¬ 
sion, in which it declared that the police power of 
a state was, 

“the general and rational principle that every 
person ought to so use his property as not to in¬ 
jure his neighbors, and that private interests 
must be made subservient to the general interests 
of the community.” 


229 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


In Hurtado v. California (110 United States 
Reports, page 516) Mr. Justice Mathews thus 
expressed himself on the point of “due process.” 

“There is nothing in Magna Charta, rightly 
considered as a broad charter of public right and 
law, which ought to exclude the best ideas of all 
systems and of every age; and as it was the char¬ 
acteristic principle of the common law to draw 
its inspiration from every fount of justice, we are 
not to assume that the sources of its supply have 
been exhausted. On the contrary, we should ex¬ 
pect that the new and various experiences of our 
own situations and system will mould and shape 
it into new and not less useful forms.” 

It is for this view that the Progressive move¬ 
ment contends, and it is this view that has largely 
controlled the attitude of the Supreme Court in 
its interpretation of the “due process” require¬ 
ment. There have been exceptions. Occasion¬ 
ally the personnel of the Court has had a prepon¬ 
derance of men with the narrower vision, and de¬ 
cisions have been given that did not harmonize 
with the general trend of the Court’s opinion. 
Federal judges in circuit and district courts and 
state judges are more inclined to the less liberal 
230 


THE JUDICIARY AND THE PEOPLE 


interpretation, and this fact has occasioned much 
of the popular dissatisfaction amounting to in¬ 
dignant resentment and clamor for reform. 

The frequent reversal of lower courts in the 
Federal jurisdiction, where they have undertak¬ 
en to interfere with the will of the people ex¬ 
pressed through legislation, has served to em¬ 
phasize the belief that there is need for some 
means of conserving the popular right to enact 
enlightened sentiment in statutory law. 

This general survey of the situation may be 
made clearer by illustrating with one or two spec¬ 
ific instances. Statutes have been passed in New 
York state regulating hours of labor in certain 
industries, or for certain classes of workers. 
These statutes were carefully modelled after oth¬ 
ers that had been enacted in other states, and 
that had been upheld as constitutional by the 
state courts and by the Supreme Court. Yet the 
courts of New York have declared these statu¬ 
tes unconstitutional, and the people have been 
denied the right to legislation designed to protect 
them in their toil. Nor can an appeal be taken 
to the Supreme Court in such cases, since no ap¬ 
peal is allowed to the Federal judiciary when 
231 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


the Appellate Court of a state has sustained a 
right asserted under the Federal constitution. 
Thus a decision adverse to a statute on the 
grounds that some right granted by the Federal 
constitution is infringed becomes the settled law 
of the state, and may be used as a precedent in 
other states. 

The Ives case—officially known as Ives v. 
South Buffalo Ry. Co., 201 New York Reports, 
page 271—is an excellent illustration. In this 
particular case a workingman’s compensation 
act, drawn and revised by members of the New 
York bar of highest standing and ability, mo¬ 
delled upon similar laws that had stood the test 
in other states, was held to be unconstitutional by 
the New York Court of Appeals, without dis¬ 
senting opinion, on the ground that it was not 
within the “police power” of the state and that it 
violated the “due process” provision. The Su¬ 
preme Court, not long after, in a case of almost 
exactly similar nature that came up to it through 
the Connecticut courts, unanimously held the 
statute to be constitutional. 

In the decision of the New York court Judge 
Werner, who wrote the opinion, said of the “due 
process” provision: 


232 


THE JUDICIARY AND THE PEOPLE 


“Every man’s right to life, liberty and proper¬ 
ty is to be disposed of in accordance with those 
ancient and fundamental principles which were 
in existence when our constitutions were adopt¬ 
ed.” 

Thus it was in following these “ancient” prin¬ 
ciples that the court reached its decision. It had 
no place in its thought for any modern view¬ 
point; it could not recognize the fact that condi¬ 
tions have changed and that the general under¬ 
standing of what constitutes justice and right¬ 
eous conduct has evolved to a higher idealism. 
Even if these things were granted the court held 
that they were not to be considered as “control¬ 
ling of our own construction of our own consti¬ 
tution.” 

It is against this slavish adherence to “an¬ 
cient” principles that the Progressives protest 
They object to being ruled by a dead hand in a 
living age. They maintain that the constitution 
should be a vital instrument, possessing the elas¬ 
ticity of ready adjustment to the needs and con¬ 
science of the time, and not a straight-jacket 
fashioned on a model of antique design and laced 
with strings of precept and precedent belonging 
to an outgrown era. 


233 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


And the so-termed “recall of judicial deci¬ 
sion” is aimed at giving to the state constitutions 
this vitality, this elasticity, this living principle 
of growth and adjustment. The term is not a 
wholly fortunate one. It was an adaptation of 
the phrase “recall of judges” to a less radical 
process, and has been misleading to some who 
have given the question only superficial consider¬ 
ation. 

Possibly it will be best to point out some of the 
things that are not contemplated in the “recall 
of judicial decisions.” 

First, it in no way affects the United States 
Supreme Court or its decisions. No one has 
suggested its application to this body, and, as 
has been shown, there is small occasion for it. 
In fact it is rather designed to bring the appellate 
courts of the states up to the advanced position of 
the Supreme Court. 

Second, it does not apply to any “specific” 
clause of any constitution. Those clauses that 
are definite in their permission or prohibition of 
certain acts, or that prescribe precisely certain 
conditions and requirements in language that is 
manifestly self-explanatory, are not contemp- 
234 


THE JUDICIARY AND THE PEOPLE 


lated as in any way subject to the recall prin¬ 
ciple. It concerns itself only with the “police 
power” as it is limited by the “due process” pro¬ 
vision. 

Third, it cannot weaken the protection given 
by the guaranties of the Federal constitution 
since behind all state constitutions containing the 
“due process” proviso is the Federal provision 
that “No state shall. . . .deprive any person of 
property without due process of law.” 

Fourth, it has nothing to do with the recall of 
judges. It is probable, however, that one result 
of its adoption would be to remove much of the 
occasion for the demand for judicial recall. 

Fifth, it has no direct bearing on the decision 
in any specific suit. The referendum to the peo¬ 
ple would concern a statute rather than a judic¬ 
ial decision. It would determine the prevailing 
morality, the weight of public conscience as to 
the statute under question. It could only follow’ 
the determination of the highest appellate juris¬ 
diction of the state as to the constitutionality of 
a statute, and could not be exercised in the case 
of decisions by lesser courts. 

Affirmatively, therefore, it is simply a method 
235 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


by which the people may have the right to say 
that the “due process” clause in their constitu¬ 
tion shall not be used to negative a statute 
deemed by them to be in the interests of the pub¬ 
lic welfare and in harmony with the enlightened 
public conscience of the time. 

Thus it amounts to a simple plan of amending 
the constitution by broadening an already estab¬ 
lished principle to include specific conditions not 
contemplated at the time the constitution was 
adopted. 

What the people really do is to re-enact a law 
that their highest state court has declared to be 
unconstitutional because of its interpretation of 
the “due process” restriction on the “police pow¬ 
er.” Or, it might be said, that the people adopt 
the interpretation of the Supreme Court in pre¬ 
ference to the narrower interpretation of their 
own. 

It will be seen that this is not nearly so revolu - 
tionary as many have represented the principle 
to be. 

The question may be asked, In what is this 
plan superior to the existing methods of general 
constitutional amendment ? 


236 


THE JUDICIARY AND THE PEOPLE 


Without making exhaustive answer to {this 
query it may suffice to point out that existing 
methods of amendment will remain necessary in 
all cases where there is demand for change in 
specific clauses of the constitution. Where the 
language of the constitution no longer expresses 
the will of the people it is essential that the lan¬ 
guage should be changed to conform with the 
new need or the new demand. 

But the language of the “due process” clause 
requires no alteration. No exception is taken by 
anyone to the fundamental idea of this provision. 
It is a vitally important requirement, an indis¬ 
pensable safe-guard to the life, liberty and pro¬ 
perty of the citizen. The objection is to the in¬ 
terpretation placed upon this clause in the case 
of specific statutes enacted under the police or 
regulatory power of the state. The so-termed 
“recall” plan permits of the definition of this 
provision by the expressed conscience of the peo¬ 
ple so as to include within its scope the statute 
that under an older and narrower definition is 
declared unconstitutional. In other words it 
gives elasticity to a fundamental principle which 
no one wants to see abandoned. 

237 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


There is always the danger in general amend¬ 
ment of going too far, or of merely providing 
further material for forensic debate. Many il¬ 
lustrations of this peril could be offered, but we 
need consider one only. It is proposed to amend 
the New York state constitution by a somewhat 
lengthy clause excepting from its “due process’’ 
provision laws for the protection of the lives, 
health, or safety of employes, or for the payment 
of compensation to workers. Many of the ab¬ 
lest lawyers have collaborated on this amend¬ 
ment, and yet the greatest doubt exists, even in 
the minds of its authors, as to the possible inter¬ 
pretations that may be placed upon it or to the 
manner in which at some later time it may be 
found to conflict with the public interest arising 
out of new conditions. But, if adopted, there it 
must stand in the constitution, its verbal pre¬ 
ciseness and rigidity, now considered necessary, 
constituting a possible barrier to further impor¬ 
tant legislation. 

Would it not be a simpler and wiser method 
to leave the “due process” clause without specific 
amendment or addition, and to meet the ob¬ 
stacles the court s may raise through its inter - 
238 


THE JUDICIARY AND THE PEOPLE 


pretation by the deliberate voice of the people 
saying concerning a statute passed by their re¬ 
presentatives—“This law is in harmony with 
what we believe to be the just and humane mean¬ 
ing of ‘due process’ as required by the constitu¬ 
tion”? 

For the cases and quotations used in this chap¬ 
ter I am indebted to “Majority Rule and the 
Judiciary,” a most excellent little book dealing 
with the whole question, of which the author is 
William L. Ransom, of the New York Bar. 


239 


CHAPTER XIV 
The Nation's Business 

It is not necessary for the purpose of this book 
to deal in detail with such issues as the tariff, 
currency, conservation of natural resources, im¬ 
migration and civil service. 

All of these questions have been discussed so 
fully in the press that to traverse the ground 
again with thoroughness would be a repetition of 
much with which the public is familiar. They 
were not in themselves directly concerned with 
the birth of the Progressive movement, and their 
consideration is not essential to the vital features 
of its programme. 

It is true, however, that the movement holds 
definite opinions, set forth in the platform, which 
accord with its underlying philosophy, and a 
chapter may be devoted to noting the position 
taken in relation to this particular group of is¬ 
sues intimately concerned with the national bus¬ 
iness. 

Fundamentally the Progressive movement 
recognizes that the commercial situation through* 
240 


THE NATION’S BUSINESS 


out the world has reached a development de¬ 
manding special attention from the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment. We have come to an era of keen inter¬ 
national competition. As we have out-grown 
the competitive epoch in domestic industries we 
have found ourselves facing a world-wide fight 
for foreign markets. The need for extending 
our operations in order to discover an outlet for 
our increasing productivity has forced us to look 
upon other lands with greater interest as possible 
customers for the commodities we manufacture 
or the crops we raise. 

In this survey we are impressed by the fact 
that older nations have been before us in laying 
plans to realize the opportunities of such mar¬ 
kets. We are repeatedly told by those who are 
acquainted with conditions in such countries as 
as those of South America and the Orient, that 
Europe has shown a larger appreciation of the 
need for organized and well adjusted cultivation 
of their trade than has the United States. 

It is important that this country should take 
the necessary steps to place her industries and 
her commerce on an equal footing with those of 
competing nations in obtaining a full and fair 
241 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


share of foreign custom. This necessity em¬ 
phasizes from another stand-point the wisdom of 
that phase of Progressive policy which recogni¬ 
zes that cooperation and combination at home are 
essential factors in industrial and commercial 
success. Any attempt arbitrarily to hinder the 
legitimate consolidation of strength at home 
means an inevitable weakening of our efficiency 
to meet competition abroad. This is by no 
means the least argument opposed to those who 
are set upon restoring domestic competition. 
Their failure to realize that the modern tendency 
of business is due, in no small degree, to the exi¬ 
gent demands of the world situation is proof of 
how narrow is the vision they take. 

A study of the remarkable achievements of 
Germany in spreading its commerce throughout 
the world is convincing to the open mind that 
the United States, in order to maintain her com¬ 
mercial equality with other nations, must adopt 
a vigorous policy for the cultivation of this par¬ 
ticular department of national activity. Ger¬ 
many has fostered her foreign trade by the most 
intelligent kind of governmental cooperation, 
and on the basis of large home units of business. 

242 


THE NATION’S BUSINESS 


To introduce, at this stage, in the United States 
a policy designed to break up the larger units 
and to make the regulation of business a matter 
of state concern, rather than Federal authority, 
appears to the Progressive view-point a most fat ¬ 
uous and disaster-promising programme. 

We have the genius for organization and exec¬ 
utive direction highly developed; we have built i 
up an industrial mechanism that is superior to / 
any in the world; we have a class of workers that 
cannot be excelled. We need only the right ad¬ 
justment of this system of production to the 
world problem, with wise governmental cooper¬ 
ation, in order to assure for us a preeminent place 
among the nations in the matter of commerce. 1 

The reconstruction of our consular service 
with efficiency as the end in view is one of the 
first steps demanded by the situation. Congress 
should further provide, by appropriation, for 
such bureaus as will contribute to the fostering 
of our foreign commerce. Our State Depart¬ 
ment must make it a matter of concern to see that 
the business interests of the Nation have equal 
facilities in the necessary details of easily trans¬ 
acting business with other countries. Provision 


243 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


must be made for convenient banking, and ail 
that this involves, and every encouragement, 
apart from class legislation of an offensive and 
oppressive type, must be given to the exporter. 

This broad view of the modern need forms a 
background for the tariff policy advocated by 
the Progressive programme. 

It is clearly recognized by the Progressives 
that protection has been employed by the Re¬ 
publican party as a bullwark for special privi¬ 
lege. The making of tariffs has been controlled 
by a group of men concerned only with retaining 
for themselves peculiarly profitable opportuni¬ 
ties. It has been a class process, anti-social in its 
nature and opposed in its operation to the com¬ 
mon welfare. But this does not mean that the 
protective principle is, in itself, wrong, or in¬ 
capable of such use as to he of great advantage 
to the people at large. 

The Progressives have not abandoned protec¬ 
tion ; they have not accepted the Democratic doc¬ 
trine of freed trade, or tariff for revenue, or 
whatever other label may be affixed to it, any 
more than they have accepted the Democratic 
doctrine of a return to competition. 

244 


THE NATION’S BUSINESS 


On the contrary, they hold the same attitude 
toward protection that they hold toward the 
trusts—they propose to divorce it from the inci¬ 
dental evils that have arisen out of its manipula¬ 
tion by partisan and selfish interests. 

Their conception of a tariff is one that will 
equalize conditions of competition between the 
United States and foreign countries, and main¬ 
tain for American workers an adequate standard 
of living. This is opposed to the Democratic 
conception which seeks a tariff that will force 
competition between American industries with¬ 
out consideration for its effect upon our foreign 
trade, or upon the workers employed in our fac¬ 
tories. 

As we noted in the chapter on wages, the Pro¬ 
gressives would use the tariff primarily to obtain 
justice for the wage-earner. Protection is much 
like a gun—its value depends upon whom it is 
used to protect. In the hands of a burglar it is 
a vicious weapon; in the hands of the household¬ 
er, guarding his goods and his family, it is a wise 
and useful defence. It is true, no doubt, that in 
the past protection has been held in the hands of 
privilege, and turned against the workers and the 
245 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 

people. The Progressives propose to put it in 
the hands of the people, and to employ it as a 
means of safe-guarding the common welfare and 
prosperity. 

In order to achieve this end they advocate their 
distinctive policy—a non-partisan commission ol 
experts, commissioned by Congress to make thor¬ 
ough study of all the facts relating to industry at 
home and abroad. This study would include 
comparative costs of material, manufacture, la¬ 
bor, transportation and a comparison of working 
and living standards. It would be the aim of 
the commission to fix with accuracy the differ¬ 
ence in the cost of production at home and 
abroad, with these factors in view, and to recom¬ 
mend such measure of protection as would en¬ 
sure the possibility of American production on an 
equal competitive basis with that of foreign coun¬ 
tries after provision had been made for the ade¬ 
quate care of the American workers. 

In other words the Progressive programme 
would remove by means of a sanely devised pro¬ 
tective tariff all excuse for the underpayment of 
workers in home industries. The tariff would 
not be treated as a sacred fetich, but as a useful 
216 


THE NATION’S BUSINESS 


instrument for social and industrial purposes. 
It would be eliminated from the sphere of parti¬ 
san politics, and made a matter of exact knowl¬ 
edge, a phase of the Nation’s business in the in¬ 
terests of the whole Nation. Secrecy would he 
ended in the framing of schedules. The people 
would be in possession of the facts. There 
would be no further opportunity for log-rolling, 
and the old plan of rule-of-thumb experimenta¬ 
tion would be abolished. 

Sentiment in. favor of this view is unquestion¬ 
ably increasing- The people are wearying of 
the old ways. They are eager that some bigger 
issue than the tariff should furnish the national 
dividing line in politics. The Progressive move¬ 
ment has provided the bigger issues—popular 
government and human welfare. Sooner or la¬ 
ter its programme will be accepted gladly as the 
better one. 

Obviously the question of currency reform is 
one that cannot be dealt with at length within 
the limitations set by this book. It is at best so 
intricate and so technical as to be difficult to deal 
with in popular fashion. Certain basic consider¬ 
ations may be stated. 


247 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


The demand for currency reform originates 
largely with the banking and speculative class. 
Business is interested in it chiefly because of hav¬ 
ing experienced at certain times the embarrass¬ 
ments arising from a sudden tightening of money 
and a limiting of available currency. Indirecth 
this condition aflects labor and all the people. 

Soundness and elasticity are two requisites de¬ 
manded by the Progressive programme. By 
soundness is meant a currency having such a bas ¬ 
is as will maintain its value under varying indus¬ 
trial and commercial conditions. This is meas¬ 
urably achieved by the gold standard, established 
in this country and no longer open to serious 
question. Elasticity involves a currency that 
may be expanded to meet emergencies, or that 
will enlarge as the development of the country 
and its increasing activities require. 

The means of obtaining this elasticity, with¬ 
out lessening the sound foundation of the cur¬ 
rency is a question for expert study and solu¬ 
tion. We cannot here go into it. But back of 
these requisites is the important consideration 
that the control of the Nation’s currency and cre¬ 
dit must be free from private interests and spe- 
248 


THE NATION’S BUSINESS 


cial privilege. Many believe that a greater me¬ 
nace than the inelasticity of our currency system 
has been the control exercised by big financial 
groups, and that this remains a danger against 
which the people must be protected. 

The Aldrich currency measure was based upon 
the ostensible idea of giving to our banking sys¬ 
tem a stronger footing and our currency a great¬ 
er elasticity. It failed to meet the approval of 
the country because it was suspected of playing 
into the hands of the financial group to whom 
control of currency and credit means immense 
power and unlimited opportunity for profit. 
The peril of currency legislation lies in the ten¬ 
dency, begotten of general ignorance on such 
matters, to accept the advice of those who are as 
a class interested in the handling of the Nation’s 
money. Thus it is subjected to a biased judge¬ 
ment. The banking class, not unnaturally, re¬ 
gards its own interests as of superior importance 
to those of others, and its prejudiced advice in 
these matters results in obtaining for it a pre¬ 
ponderance of consideration. 

The Progressive philosophy demands that the 
banking class be regarded as merely one func- 
249 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


tion in the social organism, deserving justice— 
but no more, in its relation to the whole people. 
It looks with disapproval upon the present policy 
of issuing notes through private agencies, and 
would make this purely a governmental func¬ 
tion. In preparing currency legislation it would 
bring to the issue the best thought of those who 
have devoted years to economic study as well as 
the help of men engaged in the actual business 
of banking. The people can afford better to 
trust the impartial, broad treatment of this prob ¬ 
lem by the Progressives, than the treatment 
which will be accorded it by any political party 
accustomed to the old, class-consideration of such 
questions. 

The conservation of natural resources is an 
issue needing little elaboration, beyond empha¬ 
sizing the vital importance of the Progressive 
view-point as compared with that of the Demo¬ 
crats. In advocating strongly Federal control 
of the Nation’s natural wealth, in its mines, its 
forests and its water-power sites, the Progress¬ 
ives do not support a policy of stagnation. It is 
not their wish to hinder the earliest development 
of these resources, but merely to prevent their de~ 
250 


THE NATION’S BUSINESS 


velopment under such conditions as will deprive 
the people of their rights in them, and minister 
to the aggrandizement of great private interests. 
They insist upon maintaining the agricultural 
lands in the national forests open to the genuine 
settler, and in making the grazing lands, similar¬ 
ly situated, available for the stock-raiser and the 
actual homesteader under fair leasing terms. 

The mineral wealth, in coal and oil lands, the 
Progressives would retain in the control of the 
State or Nation, opening them up for immediate 
use under laws encouraging development but 
preventing monopoly, and securing a moderate 
return to the people. They lay stress upon the 
importance that no water power rights should be 
granted by the government without adequate 
compensation to the people. 

Any policy adopted or propounded by the 
Democrats is vitiated by their states’ rights doc¬ 
trine, which bars the way to effective Federal ac¬ 
tion. It is significant that there is a well-de¬ 
fined movement of capital toward the appropria¬ 
tion of natural resources, especially water-power 
rights, coincidently with a revived agitation for 
state control. Unless there is some better co- 
251 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


operation between state and Federal govern¬ 
ments in the protection of these interests of the 
people, the laissez faire attitude of the Demo¬ 
crats is apt to promote one of the most danger¬ 
ous of all monopolies—that of natural resources. 

From the Progressive view-point it is absurd 
to consider the coal-fields of Pennsylvania, for 
example, as purely a Pennsylvanian possession. 
Millions of people beyond the boarders of Penn¬ 
sylvania are dependent upon these mines. The 
same thing is true of the oil-wells of Texas, or 
other states. These mineral resources, although 
having their location within certain political 
boundaries, are wealth essential to the national 
welfare. No sane and just appraisement of 
their social value can be satisfied to let their con¬ 
trol become a matter of private monopoly 
through the neglect or corrupt culpability of the 
state legislature under whose immediate juris¬ 
diction an accident has placed them. 

Unfortunately this policy has obtained in the 
past, and much of what rightly belongs to the 
people has passed beyond their regulation. 
Workers and consumers alike pay tribute, and 
extravagant tribute, to monopolists, whose un- 
252 


THE NATION S BUSINESS 


checked ownership of the things absolutely essen¬ 
tial to human life constitutes a well-nigh intol¬ 
erable condition. 

All students of social problems recognize the 
importance of immigration as a factor. The for¬ 
eign element in our population is one that af¬ 
fords subject for serious thought, and adds to the 
complexities in the task of readjusting our com¬ 
munity life upon a more wholesome basis. Im¬ 
migration has been poorly regulated. We have 
built at Ellis Island a costly sieve, through the 
meshes of which we seek to strain the constant 
stream of life from Europe that flows to our 
shores. Into the wisdom or unwisdom of the 
conditions we impose or the manner in which 
they are enforced, it is not necessary here to en¬ 
ter. 

The point requiring emphasis is the inadequa¬ 
cy of this elimination plan—the fact that it 
meets only one phase of the problem. After 
the stream has been strained, that portion of it 
which comes through the sieve is permitted to 
find its way without direction. As a result we 
have a strong tendency to urban concentration 
and to the consequent creating of foreign colon* 
253 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


ies in our big cities. These centralized and con¬ 
centrated bodies of aliens greatly hinder the ne¬ 
cessary work of assimilation. They become both 
a social and an industrial menace, not because 
they are necessarily of a lower average potential¬ 
ity for good citizenship and useful employment 
than the native, but because their grouped con¬ 
dition encourages a conservative adherence to old 
world customs, ideas and standards of living, and 
makes them easily exploitable industrially and 
politically. 

The Progressive movement would yield noth¬ 
ing of that traditional policy which has made this 
country a haven of refuge for the oppressed of 
Europe and other lands. But it protests against 
glorying in a tradition that behaves with utter 
indifference to the welfare of the immigrant once 
he has landed on our shore. Thus far private 
agencies have been left the task of ministering 
to his peculiar needs, and private agencies have 
been allowed, without control or supervision, to 
exploit and dominate him. 

Progressives urge a well-considered national 
and state policy that will seek to direct the immi¬ 
grant tide, after it has passed the wardens at our 
254 


THE NATION’S BUSINESS 

gates, into such channels as will make for its own 
and the Nation’s greatest good. 

The Dominion of Canada has set us an ex¬ 
cellent example by its intelligent handling of this 
problem, and under its Department of the Inter¬ 
ior has accomplished much to control the quality 
of immigration and to obtain its disposal advan¬ 
tageously. The agricultural opportunities of 
its West have been made available for the new¬ 
comers, and concentration in the cities has been 
largely avoided. 

We must help the immigrant to find a good lo¬ 
cation ; we must do more than we have been doing 
to provide him with facilities for education 
adapted to his special needs, and not confined to 
the children, but available to the adults. Only 
thus can we promote that wholesome assimila¬ 
tion of the foreign element upon which the future 
peace and prosperity of the country so greatly 
depend. 

In concluding this chapter it may be well to 
note several other matters upon which the Pro¬ 
gressive movement, in its national platform, 
stands committed. 

It favors the extension of the civil service to 
255 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


all non-political offices, and the placing on a com¬ 
petitive basis of postmasters, collectors, marshals 
and similar Federal appointees. It is strongly 
opposed to the injection of party politics into 
this phase of government business, and insists 
that men appointed under competition on a merit 
basis shall hold office during life, efficiency and 
good behavior. It advocates a well-considered 
and fair retirement law for the civil-service em¬ 
ploye who has passed the years of efficient service 
with a clean record. 

The income tax amendment to the constitution 
is approved by the Progressives, and a graduated 
inheritance tax is also urged. 

While deploring the survival of the war spirit 
and the continued growth of armaments, the 
Progressives support the two-battleship policy 
as the wisest programme to be pursued until such 
time as the nations of the world unite to disman¬ 
tle their navies and lay aside their destructive 
weapons. They favor every sane proposal look¬ 
ing toward the establishment of peace, but are 
opposed to the negotiation of any treaty that 
discriminates between American citizens on the 
ground of birthplace, race or religion, or that 
256 


THE NATION S BUSINESS 


fails to recognize the absolute right of expatria¬ 
tion. 

This comprises a summary of the Progressive 
outlook upon the big questions of national bus¬ 
iness at home and abroad. 


257 


CHAPTER XV 

The Progressive Programme in the State 

In many features the programme of the Pro¬ 
gressive movement in its relation to state govern¬ 
ment follows the lines already described in the 
chapters on popular rule and human welfare. 

It is not necessary to discuss again such ques¬ 
tions as direct primaries, the initiative, referen¬ 
dum and recall, woman suffrage and the various 
measures intended for the betterment of those 
engaged in industry. What has been said of 
these things applies to the legislative policy of 
the party in its state activities, and, in such leg¬ 
islatures as have had their quota of Progress¬ 
ives, bills have been introduced, and, in an en¬ 
couraging number of instances, have been en¬ 
acted, providing for many of the features in the 
welfare planks of the national platform. 

There are peculiar problems, some of which 
are not directly associated with the principles of 
the movement, that face the Progressive party in 
the several states. Some of these concern its 
rights and privileges as a political organization. 

258 


IN THE STATE 


It finds itself hampered by primary and election 
laws that were drafted when there were but two 
prominent parties in the political arena, and 
which lack the elasticity necessary to adjust 
themselves to the new conditions. These are dif¬ 
ficulties that vary greatly in detail, and will be 
met and solved in time. In the earlier activities 
of the movement they form a serious handicap to 
its success in the field of electoral combat. 

But some of these problems are deeper and 
more perplexing. They lie in the state consti¬ 
tutions that prevent the enactment of legisla¬ 
tion to fulfill the programme of the party. In 
many states the process of constitutional amend¬ 
ment is slow and tedious. For example it is not 
infrequently required that a resolution provid¬ 
ing for the amendment of the constitution must 
be approved at two successive sessions of the 
Legislature before being submitted to the peo¬ 
ple; further it is often the case that the number 
of such amending resolutions that may be ap¬ 
proved at any one session of the legislature is 
limited. Illinois, for instance, may not provide 
for the submission of more than two amendments 
at one time. 


25 9 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


This makes progress slow where the funda¬ 
mental law of the state is of old construction and 
does not contemplate the modern ideas of legis¬ 
lation that are proposed by the movement. 

It was the contention of Theodore Roosevelt 
in his famous address before the Ohio constitu¬ 
tional convention that the process of amending 
state constitutions should be made easier. Un¬ 
questionably this view is finding many adherents. 
The people realize that it is impossible to em¬ 
body in the basic law of a state those principles 
that will make it adaptable to conditions as yet 
unforeseen. Stability in government is one 
thing, and rigidity quite another. Stability de¬ 
pends vastly more upon a satisfied electorate, 
upon a people prosperous and contented, than 
upon an inflexible and unadjustable constitution. 
Rigidity provokes discontent. Political, social 
and industrial evolution need regulation, not re¬ 
straint, and when the enlightened intelligence 
and conscience of a community finds itself em¬ 
barrassed by the restrictions imposed by men of 
another generation, it becomes restive. 

These problems have been solved in some states 
by making the initiative apply to constitutional 
260 


IN THE STATE 


amending as well as to statutory legislation, and, 
where Progressive policies prevail this solution 
will be applied. Under such conditions the con¬ 
stitution, instead of being the dead hand of men 
of other days, becomes a living, growing organ¬ 
ism, almost automatically adjusting itself to the 
life and conscience and understanding of the 
time. 

Aside from its efforts to promote popular gov¬ 
ernment and human welfare the Progressive 
movement finds in the state a necessity for keen 
vigilance in matters affecting the public domain, 
the natural resources and the utilities. Upon 
these interests there is being directed a well-de¬ 
fined programme of exploitation by private capi¬ 
tal. The revival of the states right doctrine, en¬ 
couraged by a national Democratic victory, is al¬ 
luring those who see in the forests, mines and wa¬ 
ter power of the individual states an opportunity 
for profit. 

The strong tendency toward Federal regula¬ 
tion of interstate commerce and industry has pro¬ 
voked capital to look for less restricted opportu 
nities under the laxer supervision of state admin¬ 
istrations. At this point the Progressive move- 
261 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


ment must be on guard. It must protest vigor¬ 
ously and unceasingly against all efforts at ob¬ 
taining a private monopoly of those resources 
that are essential to the welfare of the whole 
community, and that may be necessary to the 
happiness of those in adjoining or more distant 
commonwealths. 

We have seen in the deplorable conditions dis¬ 
closed in the Cabin and Paint creek districts of 
West Virginia the peril of permitting private in¬ 
terests to obtain unregulated control of vast and 
richly endowed territory. The mine owners of 
these coal valleys had established a feudal despo¬ 
tism against which their dependent workers were 
compelled to revolt. Untold misery and suffer¬ 
ing was occasioned, and the state was put to tre- 
mendous cost by the imperative necessity for tak - 
ing military jurisdiction over the affected terri¬ 
tory. The social and industrial loss is not to be 
estimated. This is but one phase of the danger 
that lies in the laissez faire policy characteristic 
of the older parties in dealing with such ques¬ 
tions. 

In this same work of public protection is in¬ 
cluded another feature of the Progressive pro- 
262 


IN THE STATE 

gramme that has not been dealt with in earlier 
chapters. This is the enacting of legislation to 
safe-guard the people from the irresponsible 
stock-promoter. Kansas was the first state to 
invade this field of service by the passing of what 
is known as the “blue-sky” law. It provides for 
a state official to whom all propositions for stock 
promotion and company organization must be 
submitted before license is granted to engage 
in these enterprises. Evidence must be forth¬ 
coming that the projects for which the money of 
Kansas citizens is to be solicited are in good 
faith and of substantial character. The familiar 
company prospectus that relates in glowing 
terms how vast fortunes have been made by oth¬ 
ers in certain fields of endeavor and proposes to 
point the way to similar fortune for the 
confiding public, but fails to afford any de¬ 
finite information as to the actual nature, assets 
and serious intent of the proposal, has disap¬ 
peared in Kansas. There are no more of the ar ¬ 
tistic mining stock certificates that used to be 
hawked about by gentlemen with engaging man¬ 
ner and persuasive eloquence. The J. Rufus 
Wallingford profession shuns Kansas with a 
263 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


deeper loathing than the man who thirsts for al¬ 
cohol. To all the gold-brick tribe it has become 
an arid state indeed. 

As a result millions of dollars are being saved 
the state—millions that once found their way in¬ 
to the pockets of these polite thieves, to be di¬ 
verted from productive investments. Kansas is 
enriching itself by a simple plan for protecting 
its citizens. The national Progressive platform 
approves legislation of this character. 

The Progressives propose to apply the short 
ballot principle to state government. The same 
arguments can be urged with equal strength and 
wisdom for this use of it as in the case of munici¬ 
pal affairs. 

The voters in most of the states are hampered 
in the intelligent exercise of the franchise by the 
multiplicity of elective offices and the practical 
impossibility of judging the fitness of the men 
offering as nominees of the various parties. As 
a consequence the election turns upon the charac - 
ter of the man named for Governor, and the boss¬ 
es and machines pursue the plan of choosing a 
popular or inoffensive leader for the ticket un¬ 
der whose respectable auspices they run the ser- 
264 


IN THE STATE 

viceable representatives of the invisible govern¬ 
ment. 

Let the average citizen attempt to recall the 
names of the men for whom he voted to fill offices 
subordinate to that of Governor at the last state 
election and he will discover that his interest did 
not include them. In all probability he cannot 
name one of the minor officials who was elected, 
although he will be able to name the Governor 
and his chief opponents in the race. This illus¬ 
trates the perfunctory nature of such voting. It 
is not a true expression of democracy, and far 
from serving any good purpose in the further¬ 
ance of honest and efficient government, it plays 
into the hands of the politicians and the secret in¬ 
terests. 

In New Jersey the only elective state official 
is the Governor. The adoption of this system 
has not lessened the power of the people nor mil ¬ 
itated against democracy. It has, instead, given 
a value to the ballot, by the concentration of at¬ 
tention upon the one significant office, that it 
cannot have when attention is diffused over many 
offices and more candidates. 

The theory of party government is sufficiently 
265 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


maintained by the popular election of the Gover¬ 
nor, who represents the party policy, and who, 
in association with the legislative body, can give 
effect to its programme. But there is no neces¬ 
sity why the office of Secretary of State should 
be a distinctively party office. The duties of 
State Treasurer are not such as to demand that 
they be performed by a Republican, a Democrat 
or a Progressive. In these and other offices the 
important thing is fitness and character, and 
these may be assured more certainly by concen¬ 
trating the choice of the people upon a capable, 
responsible Chief Executive, to whom authority 
is given to choose his subordinates. 

This, indeed, is the policy we now follow in 
our national administration. Who would advo¬ 
cate a change to a system similar to that obtain¬ 
ing in most of the states? Would not the neces¬ 
sity of electing not only the President and Vice- 
President, but the Secretary of State, the Secre¬ 
tary of War, the Secretary of Commerce, the 
Attorney General, the Secretary of the Interior, 
the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of 
Labor—in short the full national cabinet result 
in defeating the very ends of popular rule and 
true democracy? 


266 


IN THE STATE 


We do not fear to entrust the appointing of 
these responsible officials to the President, and 
the plan makes the national administration more 
certainly representative of the people than we 
could hope to realize by the election of the Presi ¬ 
dent’s colleagues. 

What has proved so successful and so satis¬ 
factory in the national administration would 
prove of equal worth in state government. 

Further the short ballot method contributes to 
better coordination of state departments and 
fuller harmony of policy. The man chosen by 
the people and clothed with authority to select 
his subordinates cannot evade responsibility for 
the mistakes or failure of his administration. He 
cannot say to the electorate “You gave me col¬ 
leagues who are not dependable and who will 
not work with me.” He can make or mar his 
own regime, and must answer to the people for 
the consequences of his policy. 

The long ballot is the politicians’ ballot; the 
short ballot is the people’s ballot. 

The Progressives of New York State have 
drafted a short ballot measure by which all 
elective state offices would be abolished with the 
267 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


exception of Governor and Lieutenant Gover¬ 
nor. They are also urging a state constitutional 
convention in order that the short ballot reform 
may be further strengthened by a readjustment 
of offices upon a more responsible and efficient 
basis. 

The recent proposal for a modified form of 
commission government in states deserves con¬ 
sideration. 

It was suggested by Gov. Hodges, of Kansas, 
in a message to the legislature. The proposal 
is to abolish the bi-cameral system, and create 
a legislative body of greatly reduced size, per¬ 
haps fifteen or twenty members at most. The 
idea grows out of the general dissatisfaction with 
the work of state legislatures and the desire to 
simplify both the task of the voters in selecting 
their representatives and the actual business of 
legislation. It is yet in an embryonic stage of 
development, but it is an interesting indication 
of the drift toward more compact forms of gov¬ 
ernment. There is nothing in the principles of 
the Progressive movement that clashes with the 
plan, and it has manifest advantages in its prom¬ 
ise of serious and deliberate consideration for 
268 


IN THE STATE 


all measures introduced. Gov. Hodges would 
have his small legislative body in continual ses¬ 
sion, adjourning only when there was no busi¬ 
ness to be considered, but ready always to con¬ 
vene when matters concerning the state’s welfare 
required action. Thus there would be none of 
the indecent haste that now marks the customary 
biennial sessions of state legislatures, many of 
which limit their period of deliberation to sixty 
or ninety days. In these assemblies, amid a mul¬ 
tiplicity of bills, it is impossible for more than n 
few men to be familiar with the actual terms of 
the measures proposed, or to appreciate the argu¬ 
ments for and against them. The majority vote 
as the party dictates, or under other influences 
no more intelligent, such as the trading of sup¬ 
port or the pressure exercised by lobbyists. A 
legislative body of fifteen or twenty men, with 
no occasion for haste, could consider carefully 
every bill submitted, and act upon each with ma¬ 
ture judgment. 

An interesting variation from the usual course 
of procedure is that furnished by the California 
legislature. The regular session, under a law re¬ 
cently adopted by referendum, is divided into 
269 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


two parts, the earlier of which is devoted to the 
introduction and reference of bills. A recess of 
one month is then taken in which the members 
return to their constituencies; publicity is given 
to the pending legislation; it is discussed at 
public meetings and in the press, and after 
this opportunity for ventilation of opinion 
and the sounding of popular sentiment, the 
legislature reassembles to act upon the meas¬ 
ures. The members come back to their tasks, 
having had time to study the bills before them 
and to learn the views of the people. This plan 
is operating with wholesome results in Califor¬ 
nia, and ought to be productive of better legisla¬ 
tion. 

In another chapter will be discussed the plan 
of the Progressive movement for state organiza¬ 
tion in order to facilitate the program of legisla¬ 
tion approved by the party platform. It is a 
unique phase of political activity, and, apart al¬ 
together from its party value has an immense 
potential usefulness for the common cause of 
popular government, social justice and indus¬ 
trial welfare. 


270 


CHAPTER XVI 

The Progressive Programme in the City 

While it is true that as yet the Progressive 
movement has not developed fully its programme 
in relation to municipal affairs, there are cer¬ 
tain assured and basic principles that may be ap¬ 
plied in an effort to set forth the general lines 
upon which it will proceed. 

We take it as axiomatic that Progressives be¬ 
lieve in the elimination of party politics from 
the government of cities and counties. This, 
however, does not mean that under conditions 
now existing in many municipalities, established 
by law, the Progressive party should abdicate its 
political rights and merge its identity with other 
organizations. There may be circumstances 
under which this policy is justified, but the lo¬ 
cal situation must guide. The important thing 
to be kept in view is the paramount aim to win, 
by whatever means is most effective, the kind of 
municipal government in nearest harmony with 
Progressive ideals. 

As its ultimate purpose the movement should 
271 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


seek to effect such changes in the laws as will 
establish the principle of non-partisan adminis¬ 
tration. This will require in many instances 
state legislation and the adoption of new char¬ 
ters. 

In municipalities, where the law recognizes 
party government, and where the advantages of 
the election machinery are given to party organi¬ 
zations, it must be a question for settlement by 
the Progressives of that particular jurisdiction 
whether they shall maintain their political inde¬ 
pendence by the nomination of straight tickets, 
or foster and promote fusion movements. The 
laws governing the holding of primaries, the dis¬ 
tribution of election officers and the right to rep¬ 
resentation at the polls must be considered as 
factors in the problem, and utmost care should 
be taken to avoid alliances and combinations that 
may involve any material compromise on the 
principles of the movement. 

But Progressives recognize that partisanship 
in municipal affairs is wholly without justifica¬ 
tion and utterly contrary to the best interests of 
the community. 

The administration of a city is largely a mat- 
272 


IN THE CITY 


ter of business. No occasion exists for a division 
of the citizenship upon arbitrary political lines. 
The policy of encouraging such divisions is sup¬ 
ported by the professional politicians. It makes 
it possible for them to control the balance of 
power in elections, since the intelligent and re¬ 
sponsible body of the electorate is broken into 
factions over issues that are of no real concern 
to the welfare of the city. 

Furthermore the election of a partisan admin¬ 
istration means that the service of the community 
must take second place to the service of the par¬ 
ty. Appointments are made as a matter of po¬ 
litical reward rather than of fitness for office. 
The municipal government is frequently merely 
a cog in the state political machine, and is used 
by the party as an aid for advancing its interests 
in other fields. 

Under the party system the boss finds oppor¬ 
tunity for the exercise of his power, and munici¬ 
pal policies are often dictated by some man or 
group of men who hold no responsibility to the 
people and are beyond their reach. 

These are chief among the reasons why the 
Progressive movement stands primarily for the 
273 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


elimination of partisan politics in city and county 
affairs. Its aim will be to make possible the com¬ 
mon action of all intelligent citizens for the pro¬ 
motion of the community’s welfare, without re¬ 
spect to their political differences in state and 
national politics. Under such conditions gen¬ 
uine municipal issues will come to the front as the 
topics for consideration, and the eligibility of 
candidates for office will be viewed from the 
standpoint of their character, ability and ex¬ 
pressed opinions on germane matters, rather 
than their party affiliations. 

A second basic principle recognized by the 
Progressive movement and approved in the na¬ 
tional platform as applicable to city and county 
government is that of the short ballot. 

The short ballot idea grew out of the confu¬ 
sion arising from the multiplicity of elective of¬ 
fices that must be filled at one time under the old 
and still widely prevalent system of municipal 
government. 

Not infrequently the voter finds himself con¬ 
fronted with the task of selecting men for from 
sixty to a hundred offices, and with three or four 
times as many candidates to choose from. Un- 
274 


IN THE CITY 


der such circumstances intelligent voting be¬ 
comes impossible. The average elector cannot 
know the qualifications of the men whose names, 
even, in the majority of instances, are strange to 
him. There is no possibility of weighing their 
comparative merits. His vote becomes a mere 
guess in a political lottery, rather than the ex¬ 
pression of his deliberate and well-considered 
judgment. He is induced to vote the straight 
ticket of his party, or the ticket that is headed by 
a man whose character and ability may com¬ 
mend him, and to take chances on the rest of 
the candidates. Thus the party bosses and ma¬ 
chines are enabled to load the ballot with subser¬ 
vient material, and to negative the value of the 
one or two good men—named for effect—by the 
preponderance of mediocrities, puppets and 
tools. 

It is a mistaken conception of democracy and 
representative government that imposes impos¬ 
sible tasks upon citizenship. The value of repre¬ 
sentation lies in its quality and responsiveness to 
the popular will. Where the function of the 
electorate is made a mere adjunct to the pro¬ 
gramme of a political boss or a party machine, a 
275 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


lawful method of authorizing the selections made 
by these agencies, instead of the intelligent ex¬ 
pression of citizenship, it is not an instrument of 
democracy; it is rather the instrument of a po¬ 
litical autocracy or plutocracy. The men so 
named, when sanctioned as a matter of form by 
the voters, owe their obedience, not to the peo¬ 
ple, but to the party leader or group of leaders 
who were chiefly responsible for their nomina¬ 
tion. 

This evil is of course in part remedied by the 
direct primary, w T hieh gives to the voters the 
right to nominate their own tickets; but in a di¬ 
rect primary the long ballot is almost as perilous 
as in the election. It militates equally against 
the intelligent choice of nominees as against the 
subsequent intelligent choice of officials. 

In municipal affairs the short ballot, by elimi¬ 
nating the party emblem, and reducing the num¬ 
ber of elective offices to those most important, 
serves to concentrate attention upon candidates 
in their relation to actual civic issues and gives 
opportunity to the voter to acquaint himself with 
their qualifications and to select the men best 
fitted to represent him. A short ballot primary 
276 


IN THE CITY 


in commission governed cities may present not 
more than a dozen or twenty names from which 
ten are chosen for the final election. Of these 
five survive after the final polling, and they be¬ 
come the responsible administrative and legisla¬ 
tive body, having appointive power for all minor 
offices. 

While commission government, owing to its 
general adoption in recent years and the demon¬ 
stration that has been given of its success under 
actual test, is the most conspicuous example of 
the application of the short ballot principle to 
municipal affairs, it is not the only form of ad¬ 
ministration under which it may be used. 

Modifications of the commission plan are to be 
found in which provision is made for a small 
legislative body distinct from the executive body. 
A plan of this kind has been proposed in Indi¬ 
ana, and many of the commercial bodies have 
given it hearty approval. It is advocated as a 
compromise between the old-fashioned bi-cam¬ 
eral municipal system, with its multiplicity of 
elective offices, and the commission plan, and is 
a survival of the prejudice against combining in 
one body the legislative and administrative func¬ 
tions. 


277 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


For our purpose, however, it will be sufficient 
to deal in some detail with the reasons why the 
commission plan is considered as the best present 
form of municipal government. 

We have considered the advantages that are to 
be derived from the elimination of partisan poli¬ 
tics and the reduction in the number of elective 
offices. It remains to consider what benefits in¬ 
here in the actual operation of the commission 
system. 

In the first place it is directly representative 
of all the people. There is no responsibility to 
bosses, and no demoralizing rivalries of petty 
ward politics. Chosen by the electorate at large, 
on municipal issues and for fitness, the commis¬ 
sioners enter upon their duties with a sense of 
freedom from embarrassing obligations and alli¬ 
ances. They have only one thing to consider— 
what must be done for the good of the whole 
community. 

In the second place it concentrates and de¬ 
fines responsibility and authority. Each mem¬ 
ber of the commission has assigned to him specific 
departments of city work to be subject to his ad¬ 
ministration. Appropriations and ordinances 
278 


m THE CITY 


governing these departments are passed by the 
commission as a whole, but the executive work 
is apportioned definitely among them. One may 
be responsible for streets, sewers and similar af¬ 
fairs; another for public buildings and property 
generally; another for public safety; another for 
public service, such as water and light; another 
for parks, while a fifth, elected as Mayor, will 
have general supervision. The division varies in 
different cities according to local conditions and 
opinion. 

But under this system the citizen knows who 
the responsible man is for anything that goes 
wrong or needs attention. He knows where to 
bestow praise and blame. He need not concern 
himself for subordinates. He can reach the ex¬ 
ecutive head, who is unable to avoid responsi¬ 
bility for his department. 

It is sometimes charged that the system gives 
too much responsibility to a few men. But this 
criticism is manifestly unreasonable. Under the 
old plan responsibility is ostensibly centered in 
one man, the mayor, who enjoys the veto power 
and is the appointive officer in most instances; 
but actually authority and power are vested in a 
279 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


political boss or machine, utterly without public 
responsibility and beyond popular control. 

The combination of the legislative and execu¬ 
tive functions in one body is, in the opinion of 
manjq an advantage rather than an objection. 
Prejudice against this policy has little real argu¬ 
ment to sustain it. Where the legislative func¬ 
tion is reposed in a council and the executive in 
various boards and officials room is left for an 
immense waste of energy. 

Obviously if the executive is fit and intelligent 
it is better able to judge the needs of the work 
with which it is intimately associated than any 
legislative council composed of men who are de¬ 
voting only a portion of their time to the city’s 
business and who are often of small qualification 
for passing opinion upon its needs. In such a 
body party and personal politics may operate 
to hold up necessary ordinances, or to defeat 
them and thus to handicap seriously the work of 
efficient executives. But the supposed danger 
of this combination of executive and legislative 
functions is wholly obviated by the use of the 
initiative and referendum, which gives to the 
people the right of making and vetoing ordinan- 
280 


IN THE CITY 


ces. Popular control is the best check upon the 
abuse of power. 

Further commission cities, with few excep¬ 
tions, have adopted the recall principle, thus 
making it possible to discharge from service any 
elective official who is remiss in duty. In some 
cases the recall has been made applicable to ap¬ 
pointive offices as well. 

Los Angeles county, California, has adopted 
the short ballot and the commission plan for 
county government. There is no reason why this 
plan should not become general, following the 
example of many cities. The problems of 
county government are much akin to those of the 
city, and the same weaknesses are to be found in 
the old plan with its partisan division of voters 
and its burdens upon electoral intelligence. 

We may summarize the Progressive policy in 
relation to the machinery of municipal govern¬ 
ment as contemplating the following basic prin¬ 
ciples :— 

Non-partisan primaries and elections. 

Short ballot. 

Simplified system of administration. 

The initiative, referendum and recall. 

281 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


But the Progressive vision goes further than 
machinery. It seeks the reconstruction of our 
civic mechanism only in order that it may give 
larger liberty to the spirit of democracy and 
speedier realization of the dream city, the city 
of homes and health and happiness, of beauty 
and culture and brotherhood. 

Therefore it urges that city government be 
made a science instead of a haphazard, planless 
rule of the unfit and the ill-equipped. It pro¬ 
poses to introduce the expert as a constant fac¬ 
tor instead of an emergency relief. It would 
standardize methods and materials; systematize 
accounting; put the budget upon a basis of fore¬ 
handed economy and detailed preparation; make 
the reporting of city work a matter of accurate 
and regular business, and, over all, cast the pro¬ 
tecting, stimulating light of publicity, so that the 
people would be aware of what was passing be¬ 
hind the walls of their municipal buildings, and 
intelligent in the exercise of their influence and 
the expression of their criticism or appreciation. 

It is of vital importance that the citizens be 
kept in close touch with the programme and 
methods of their adraniistration. It is only thus 
282 


IN THE CITY 


that interest can be maintained, and the electoral 
machinery made to serve its purpose. There are 
too many ways of covering up in the old system 
of city government; to many committees and 
boards in which matters can be lost to sight; too 
many channels for postponement and delay and 
avoidance. Progressive policies would take 
down the screens, destroy the hiding places and 
make observation easy. 

But the task of modernizing the business of 
the city on an efficiency basis is but the beginning 
of the task. No small part of the programme 
that the Progressive spirit suggests is the social¬ 
izing of municipal government. The city must 
be considered as a home as well as a business. The 
health, the morals and the happiness of the peo¬ 
ple are a chief concern. 

A city survey and a city plan are fundamental 
factors for progressive city government. Not 
the kind of survey that is now made for engineer¬ 
ing or assessment purposes, but a social survey 
that will disclose with some exactness the charac¬ 
teristics of the city’s life. On such a map we 
have clearly indicated the wholesale and retail 
business sections, the prosperous residential 
288 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


neighborhoods, the districts where the workers 
live, the slums, the foreign quarter and the red- 
light district. The churches, the schools, the sa¬ 
loons, the vice resorts, the dance-halls, theatres, 
parks and other public places will be shown. The 
relation of these districts and institutions to one 
another and to their respective communities can 
be studied. 

Such a survey will be a revelation and an edu¬ 
cation. It will give a new view of the municipal 
problem to those who contemplate it. It will dis¬ 
close needs and opportunities unguessed. Out 
of it will grow an intelligent social spirit and a 
city plan. 

A city plan means a well-considered pro¬ 
gramme for improvement and development, a 
programme that can be continued from year to 
year under successive administrations. It means 
the growth of the city into beauty and healthful¬ 
ness. It affords a focalizing point for all muni¬ 
cipal organizations, commercial clubs, neighbor¬ 
hood societies and similar groups of citizens. 
Instead of working at cross purposes, or with 
independent and unrelated aims, each contrib¬ 
utes its own share to the perfect whole. 

284 


IN THE CITY 


And it is through these methods that the so¬ 
cial spirit finds expression. Problems of hous- 
ing, playgrounds, libraries, boulevards, parks, 
amusements and the like become vital issues with 
the people. Citizen pride is stimulated, and men 
compete for the honor of community service in 
work and gifts. The schools are utilized for 
neighborhood clubs and gatherings. University 
extension and culture in art and music follow in 
the train of the awakened civic ambition. 

The social spirit can even take hold upon the 
police force—that despair of the big American 
city—and convert it from a mere agency to pre¬ 
vent and detect crime into a body of men trained 
to serve the comfort and happiness of the peo¬ 
ple. The police problem will never be solved 
until we cease to associate the police primarily 
with the criminal element. To break that asso¬ 
ciation it will be necessary to constitute a city 
government that does not encourage crime by 
permitting the conditions that breed it. The dis¬ 
appearance of the slum, the restriction and regu¬ 
lation of the saloon, the suppression of vice in its 
commercialized form—results that can only be 
achieved when the conscience of the people is 
235 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


quickened—will set the police free from a mesh 
of demoralizing influences to become the social 
servants of the city. 

An administration, infused with the Progress¬ 
ive spirit, will direct its effort toward the task of 
bettering the living conditions of the people. It 
will not be afraid to launch on such ventures as 
municipal markets, coal yards and relief depots; 
it will encourage public ownership of utilities; it 
will care for the physical well-being of its school 
children; will provide parks and play-grounds 
in abundance; it will furnish music and dance 
halls. Some day the city may take up the task 
of affording wholesome amusement. The civic 
theatre has been a dream, but so once was the 
civic library. 

There is no greater opportunity for democracy 
than that offered by the city, and the principles 
of the Progressive movement are the promise of 
its realization. 


%m 


CHAPTER XVII 
The New Forces 

No phase of the Progressive movement is of 
greater significance or has larger encouragement 
than the manner in which it has brought to the 
cause of a better politics hitherto unused ele¬ 
ments of the Nation’s citizenship. The appeal 
of the Progressive philosophy and programme 
has touched the minds and hearts of men and 
women who at one time held aloof from political 
organization and effort, feeling that existing 
parties afforded no satisfactory opportunity for 
the exercise of their gifts or the expression of 
their convictions. 

New forces have been released by the magic of 
a new political ideal. The conception of human 
service has inspired the unselfish cooperation of 
many of the finest spirits and ablest intellects in 
the land. In this result there is splendid pro¬ 
mise for the future. The association of these 
men and women with the movement is an assur¬ 
ance that it cannot degenerate into a mere scram¬ 
ble for offices, a mere demagogic assault upon the 
287 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


seats of the mighty prompted by ambition and 
the lust for power. 

The great national gatherings of Progressives 
were marked by a new impulse and atmosphere. 
The press commented upon the strange fact that 
the spirit of a religious revival rather than of a 
political convention seemed to pervade these as¬ 
semblies. Prayer was more than a polite and 
perfunctory concession to sentiment; hymns 
were sung with fervor and devotion, and the 
bearing of the delegates was impressively ear¬ 
nest. There was the thought of consecration to 
a great task in the speeches that were made. 
Crusade seemed a better word than campaign as 
descriptive of the new activities. Although the 
throngs at these assemblies represented every 
creed one could discover only a sense of brother¬ 
hood, a deep, unifying conviction of common ob¬ 
ligation and opportunity that merged all minor 
differences of faith. 

And after all this recrudescence of the relig¬ 
ious spirit in American political life is not so 
much to be wondered at as to be gratefully and 
gladly acknowledged. It is the natural outcome 
of the movement that sprang from the common 
288 


THE NEW FORCES 


life of the people and expressed their deepest 
convictions and their highest aspirations. It has 
been true always that when men become seized 
with a sense of the value of human life, with a 
realization of their common interest in human 
welfare and with the zeal of service for their fel¬ 
lows the religious fountains of the soul are 
prompted to fresh and vigorous outpourings. 
It is as if God entered into the fellowship of men 
whenever their thoughts turn to the real work of 
upbuilding the race. 

This ground of service is the common ground 
upon which the divine and human meet. The 
heart of man never beats more truly in accord 
with the heart of God than when he turns his 
hand in sympathy and help to his weaker broth¬ 
er. It was the fact that the Progressive move¬ 
ment represented a revival of concern for men 
and women and little children, a purpose to bring 
larger life and liberty to the poor and the op¬ 
pressed, that touched the religious emotion and 
struck a sweeter, stronger, more passionate 
chord of music in the Nation’s politics than had 
been heard since the days when the emancipa¬ 
tion of the negro race set the freedom-loving peo¬ 
ple of the land to the singing of battle-hymns. 

289 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


I recall one session of the Progressive party 
convention in Chicago when the vast audience 
that thronged the Coliseum repeated in reverent 
solemnity the Lord’s prayer. Jew and Gentile, 
Protestant and Catholic, Evangelical and Uni¬ 
tarian joined in that prayer with one accord. 
“Thy Kingdom come.” reverberated through the 
great hall with a new and profound significance. 
When the “amen” had been said and the thou¬ 
sands took their seats a political leader turned to 
me with a strange quaver in his voice as he said, 
“That is the most progressive prayer I ever 
heard.” 

It was a progressive prayer with a new dyna¬ 
mic behind it, and one felt that religion had en¬ 
tered politics for a splendid and mighty purpose. 
Not the religion of creeds and dogmas, but the 
religion of the universal fatherhood and the com¬ 
mon brotherhood, the religion that recognized 
responsibility to God as finding its supreme ex¬ 
pression in service for men. 

And this is one of the new forces that has 
been directed into the channel of a cleaner, high¬ 
er politics by the Progressive movement. I be¬ 
lieve it is to prove a permanent force, one that 
290 


THE NEW FORCES 


will make for righteousness and that will help to 
keep the movement true to the great principles 
that gave it birth. It is a force that should be 
conserved and given opportunity for expression. 
It should be encouraged and earnestly culti¬ 
vated. The churches, as such, by the very na¬ 
ture of their organization and work, cannot pro¬ 
vide an opportunity for the exercise of the relig¬ 
ious spirit in the sphere of politics. The Pro¬ 
gressive movement, broadly humanitarian, re¬ 
presenting a splendid idealism in the field of 
practical achievement offers a fitting medium 
through which the fervor, the enthusiasm, the de¬ 
votion of true religion can utter itself in terms 
of social justice, civic righteousness and unsel¬ 
fish service. 

We have already considered at some length 
the relation of women to the Progressive move¬ 
ment and its espousal of the equal suffrage 
cause, but there is proper place in this chapter 
for a further word upon the full comradeship of 
woman as one of the new forces enlisted in this 
modern crusade. Henceforth American politics 
is to be human politics; hitherto it has been male 
politics. It may be said truly that men have not 
291 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


been indifferent to the claims and interests of 
women. The mother influence has shaped and 
guided them; it has reached out from the circle of 
the home and laid restraining hands upon the 
sons of mothers at the polls and in the halls of 
legislation. They have not always been respon¬ 
sive; in some things they have failed woefully. 
But let credit he given them where credit is due. 

If they have failed they are ready to confess 
failure and to make amends by admitting to full 
comradeship the women to whose inspiration 
they owe most of what is worthiest in their re¬ 
cord. And women are answering generously 
and loyally the invitation to share in the burden 
and heat of the battle. They are bringing to 
the movement a splendid impulse and a wise 
guidance. Their close contact, their intimate 
presence in its activities are constant reminders 
to the men that this is a cause as holy as the home 
itself. In such an association woman elicits 
what is best in manhood. 

But, possibly, the most valuable contribution 
they have made to the movement is to establish 
within it a sense of the inseparable relationship 
between politics and the home. There has been 
292 


THE NEW FORCES 


great need for the embodying of this conception 
in our political life. We have been too prone to 
regard the state as a thing apart from the com¬ 
mon life and common interests of the people, an 
extraneous and independent organism to be 
maintained by a professional class known as 
politicians and manipulated largely in their be¬ 
half. 

We will lose nothing by catching a vision of 
the state as the larger expression of the common 
life, and of the business of the state as the house ¬ 
keeping or home-making of the Nation. In this 
vision we see how logically the health, the happi¬ 
ness, the morals and the general welfare of the 
people fit as concerns of politics. 

For years there has been in this country a 
great and continually growing group of men and 
women whose lives were devoted to the study of 
problems affecting the welfare of their fellows 
and to the attempt to solve these problems. 
Variously called sociologists, reformers, philan¬ 
thropists or charity workers, they have repre¬ 
sented an invaluable force in our national life. 
Often they have been scouted and scorned, belit¬ 
tled as dreamers and impractical idealists, re- 
293 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


garded as troublesome meddlers by the self-cen¬ 
tered and rebuffed by those who needed most 
their help. 

They have labored loyally and unselfishly, un¬ 
der great discouragements and many handicaps. 
They have been voices crying in a wilderness, 
proclaiming the gospel of service to an age and a 
world that gave little heed. Through private 
agencies and through public they have steadily 
pushed forward in the cause of humanity. Here 
and there they have obtained some political re¬ 
cognition, some grudging concession from par¬ 
ties wedded to lower and more sordid ideals. 
Doubtless they have been mistaken in certain of 
their plans, too extreme at times in their propa¬ 
ganda ; but we owe them a debt we can never re¬ 
pay for having kept burning upon the altar of 
our national life the sacred fire of love for man¬ 
kind. 

In the Progressive movement these men and 
women, among the purest and best of our citi¬ 
zens, have, for the first time, found a political in¬ 
strument in sympathy with their aspirations. It 
has turned to them a hearing ear and an under¬ 
standing heart. It has welcomed them to its 
294 


THE NEW FORCES 


councils. It has given definite expression to the 
best of their collective thought and wisdom in its 
programme. 

The Progressive movement has taken up the 
cause they championed and has made the Nation 
ring with its challenge. 

To these men and women the movement means 
the realization of their cherished dreams. 
Hopes bred of human love are brought within 
the region of the practical. They see the politics 
of the country infused with their spirit. 

To have linked this force in vital relationship 
with the government of the country is not least 
of the Progressive achievements. The hearty 
enlistment of these men and women in the cause; 
their active participation in political life is the 
converting to the use of American citizenship of 
a hitherto unrealized asset, the value of which 
cannot be over-estimated. 

Among such thoughtful workers as these are 
many who come from the colleges and the univer¬ 
sities, and not a few who are teachers in these in¬ 
stitutions. Their knowledge is of greatest use. 
They have specialized in the study of subjects 
that directly concern the welfare of the people. 

295 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


The Progressive movement is using this know¬ 
ledge as it has never before been employed in 
politics. 

The libraries and the laboratories in the col¬ 
leges are being rediscovered as assets of value to 
the common good. Academic learning, the gibe 
of the professional politician, is being harnessed 
to the service of the state. 

It is impossible to predict the important and 
revolutionary consequences that may follow the 
entrance of these influences as factors operating 
directly in the political life of the country. It is 
true that they have always exercised an indirect 
impulse upon our affairs; but it has come 
through so many media that it has lost much of 
its original force and color by the time it has 
reached the sphere of legislation and govern¬ 
ment. 

Congress has been, in the past, and is today 
largely a body of lawyers; men of special class 
training and having a biased view in their ap¬ 
proach to public questions. In this it has fallen 
short of realizing the ideal as representative of 
real democracy. There has been little en¬ 
couragement to men of other pursuits to enter 
296 


THE NEW FORCES 


political life. Men of serious mind and studious 
disposition; men whose vision has been broader 
than the average legal outiook, have recoiled 
from the type of politics that has marked our 
public life; they have disliked its methods; they 
have found its atmosphere uncongenial, its par¬ 
tisan restrictions and its expedient compromises 
distasteful and burdensome to self-respect. 

But the Progressive movement opens the way 
for such men to cooperate in the field of political 
achievement and reform with consistency and 
satisfaction. As it grows in strength it will 
bring more of them out of the class-room and the 
study into the active sphere of aggressive service 
for the people. And they will rejoice at the op¬ 
portunity. There is nothing more distressing to 
knowledge than the condition that prevents its 
free exercise for the good of others. 

Political conventions and conferences of the 
older parties have been controlled by the profess¬ 
ional politicians, the representatives of special 
privilege, the class of men to whom politics 
meant profit. They have largely dictated no¬ 
minations and shaped platforms. But in the 
Progressive assemblies the conspicuous men have 
297 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


been the unselfish students of social questions 
and the devoted workers in the field of human 
betterment. 

It is further true of the Progressive movement 
that for the first time the voice of the great work¬ 
ing class of the Nation is given a free and atten¬ 
tive hearing. A radical element of this class has 
found opportunity for expression in the Socialist 
party, but there are literally millions of workers 
who do not accept the Socialist doctrine and pro¬ 
gramme to whom the Progressive movement af - 
fords a welcome and holds a promise such as they 
have never had before. 

In their dealings with the old political organ¬ 
izations the workers have had to be content with 
more or less casual consideration. They have 
been granted tbe crumbs from the banquet tables 
spread in the interests of privilege. The policy 
has been to make them some concession, going no 
further than the pressure of the labor movement 
compelled as a matter of political expediency. 

Rut in the Progressive movement they find an 
eagerness to accept them as full comrades and 
advisers. Their problems have been taken up in 
serious and sympathetic purpose; they have been 
298 


THE NEW FORCES 


made paramount, and given, for the first time, 
an importance worthy of them. 

And, on the other hand, the Progressive move¬ 
ment has afforded opportunity for those employ¬ 
ers of labor and men of wealth whose keener in¬ 
sight and more sensitive conscience have devel¬ 
oped in them a social spirit. These men have 
abandoned the old idea that labor is to be treated 
as a subordinate and inferior class of the com¬ 
munity, a class to be ruled, to be kept within limi¬ 
tations and to be made the object of a con¬ 
descending interest in its welfare. They have 
accepted the new and better doctrine that labor 
must be given right and freedom to serve its own 
cause and the cause of all the people in a cooper¬ 
ative programme, where the claim of each several 
function of the social organism is recognized at 
its just value. 

The conception is no longer one of doing some¬ 
thing for the toilers, but of joining hands with 
the toilers to accomplish much for the common 
good. 

Thus the Progressive movement is stimulating 
and fostering a new and truer spirit of demo¬ 
cracy. It is becoming the melting pot for many 
299 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


hitherto unrelated and even antagonistic ele¬ 
ments. It is welding into a unity of aim and ac ¬ 
tion all the factors in the social whole. 

If its programme prevail we shall be in reality 
an undivided Nation; the conflict of racial, sec¬ 
tional and class interests will be at an end. Pro ¬ 
gress and prosperity will not be measured by the 
amazing success of a few, fed and maintained al: 
the cost of the many, but by the advance of all 
and the sharing of all in larger and more equal 
proportions. 

In the Progressive propaganda is the promise 
of a better understanding and understanding is 
the solvent for many of our social ills. Ignor¬ 
ance of the other man’s condition and the other 
man’s viewpoint is the occasion for much oppres¬ 
sion and injustice, for much blind bitterness and 
resentment. 

As we come to know each other better and to 
appreciate more fully the problems that each in 
his own niche must face we will be less ready to 
judge and to condemn. We will see not only the 
criminal folly of violence, but the greater crimin¬ 
al folly of the anti-social policy that provokes it. 
We will realize that jails and penetentiaries are 
badges of shame upon our civilization for the 
300 


THE NEW FORCES 


presence of which we are all of us responsible. 
We will be less enamored with our charities, our 
institutions for the poor and the defective. 
These, too, will appear to us as mere expedients 
to mitigate our failure, excuses for an avoidance 
of the more radical task of establishing justice. 

We will sing with less sense of righteousness 
“Rescue the Perishing,” and begin to ask our¬ 
selves, with searching honesty, why there should 
be any perishing to rescue. Instead of confin¬ 
ing much of our effort to snatching brands from 
the burning we will devote ourselves more zeal¬ 
ously to extinguishing the flames and preventing 
their spread. 

Whatever may be the political future of the 
Progressive party, the Progressive movement 
must survive and must increase in power and in 
following. It represents the new crusade and 
the new comradeship; it makes human life and 
human happiness the supreme issues. For this 
reason it commands the best that is in religion, in 
education, in science, in the souls and brains of 
the race. It is the promise and portent of De¬ 
mocracy, full-flowered and full-fruited, to be re¬ 
alized in politics, in industry and in the homes of 
the people. 


301 


CHAPTER XVIII 

Progressive Organization 

In many features of its organization the Pro¬ 
gressive party is unique. Those interested in 
its creation realized the importance of avoiding 
the mistakes that had proved fatal to the Re¬ 
publican party and that were a cause of weak¬ 
ness to the Democrats. Further they felt the 
necessity of guarding against those perils that 
have threatened popular control in political or¬ 
ganizations, and those tendencies that have fos¬ 
tered the building up of machines. 

It was recognized that the new party had a 
work to do differing in character from that of 
the older parties, since its programme invaded 
territory hitherto but lightly touched. Provi¬ 
sion had to be made for educational propaganda 
of a most thorough kind. The success of the 
party depends upon the appeal it can make to the 
intelligence and conscience of the people. Lack¬ 
ing history and traditions from which to derive 
inspiration and on which to base persuasive rhe¬ 
toric, it is of essential importance that it should 
302 


PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATION 


reach the convictions of the voters rather than 
their sentiment and emotions. This is a harder 
task, but, in its accomplishment, more thorough, 
more permanent and vastly more potent for the 
substantial progress of the Nation. 

Hence there have evolved two great arms of 
the movement in its organized political expres¬ 
sion—that which concerns the nomination and 
election of candidates for office, and all that per¬ 
tains to this work; and that which concerns edu¬ 
cation, propaganda, the making of platforms 
and the drafting of legislation. The former di¬ 
vision is represented by the National Committee, 
the latter by the Progressive Service, under the 
National Committee’s auspices. 

Let us consider first the National Committee. 
This committee is composed of one member from 
each state, the District of Columbia, Alaska and 
Hawaii. These committeemen were chosen for 
the first National Committee at the national con¬ 
vention in 1912 by the delegations from the sev¬ 
eral states, the district, territory and islands. 
Hereafter they will be chosen in the manner pre¬ 
scribed by the laws of the United States, or bv 
the laws of the several states from which they 
303 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


come. In the event that there is no law govern¬ 
ing the method of choice then the state conven¬ 
tions shall prescribe the manner in which mem¬ 
bers of the committee are to be selected, each 
state being free to follow its own method. 

The National Committee constitutes the gov¬ 
erning body of the party at such times as the na¬ 
tional convention is not in session. The mem¬ 
bers from the District of Columbia, Alaska and 
Hawaii sit merely as conferees, and have no vote 
in the committee proceedings. 

An important point in the rules of the party is 
the provision that the National Committee at 
each national convention shall be one deriving its 
authority directly from the members of the party 
immediately prior to the holding of the conven¬ 
tion. That is to say the convention of 1916 will 
not be under the direction of a National Commit¬ 
tee elected four years previously, but will be or¬ 
ganized by a committee freshly come from the 
people. This is in marked contrast with the pol¬ 
icy pursued in the older parties, under which a 
moribund committee continues to exercise au¬ 
thority until a new convention is organized. It 
was the absolute control of the Republican con- 
304 


PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATION 


vention of 1912 by a committee chosen in 1908 
that constituted one of the causes provoking the 
division of the party. These men were four 
} r ears behind public sentiment; they did not re¬ 
present the real spirit of the party, but they pos¬ 
sessed the power to force their antiquated view¬ 
point upon its convention. 

The National Committee is empowered to ap¬ 
point an Executive Committee of the party to 
have active charge of the party work during the 
interim between conventions. The members of 
this committee may be or may not be members of 
the National Committee. It is further em¬ 
powered to add to its own membership four wom¬ 
en as members at large. This is the first time 
that a political party, excepting the Socialist par¬ 
ty, has included women in the membership of its 
National Committee. 

Any member of the Executive Committee may 
be recalled by a two-thirds vote of the National 
Committee, and a majority of the National Com¬ 
mittee may require consideration by the Execu¬ 
tive Committee of any question it submits. 

State organizations have the right to provide 
for the recall of their national committeemen. 

305 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


The party rules specifically require that the 
laws of the United States or of the several states 
be recognized as controlling in any case where 
they conflict with the party rules. This applies 
to the election of delegates to the national con¬ 
vention. The point was raised at the Republi¬ 
can convention over the proposal of the National 
Committee to ignore the California primary law, 
and to unseat delegates that had been elected un¬ 
der it and who carried the certificate of the state. 
While this proposal was followed in one instance 
only, it was seriously considered as a wholesale 
method of depriving the Republicans of Califor¬ 
nia of their lawful representation, and the argu¬ 
ment was made that the laws of a state could not 
supercede the rules of a national political organ¬ 
ization. 

The basis of representation in the national con¬ 
vention is fixed as one delegate and one alternate 
from each Congressional District for every five 
thousand votes or major fraction thereof cast at 
the last preceding presidential election for the 
Progressive candidate for elector receiving the 
largest number of votes, provided that no dis¬ 
trict shall have less than one delegate and one al- 
306 


PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATION 


ternate; one delegate and one alternate for each 
Congressman at large and each United States 
Senator; one delegate and one alternate each for 
the District of Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii. 

This rule makes it utterly impossible to con¬ 
trol a convention by venal votes, obtained in 
states where the party has no genuine popular 
support. There is every probability that this 
sound provision will be copied by the older par¬ 
ties, but to the Progressives must belong the cre¬ 
dit for having initiated it. 

In states where primary laws make provision 
for the election of delegates to national conven¬ 
tions, the certificate of election issued by the au¬ 
thorized state official is to be accepted as prima 
facie evidence of election. In states where there 
is no such provision made the certificate of elec¬ 
tion of the highest governing body of the party 
shall have similar value. 

With few modifications the rules of the House 
of Representatives of the Sixty Second Con¬ 
gress govern the procedure of the national con¬ 
ventions. 

The adoption of a platform is made by rule 
precedent to the nomination of candidates for 
President and Vice-President. 

307 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


The chairman of the first National Commit¬ 
tee of the Progressive party is former Senator 
Joseph Dixon, of Montana. The first Execu¬ 
tive Committee consists of George W. Perkins, 
New York, chairman; William Flinn, Pennsyl¬ 
vania; Charles Thompson, Vermont; Jane Ad- 
dams, Illinois; Meyer Lissner, California; 
Chauncey Dewey, Illinois; Walter Brown, Ohio; 
George Priestley, Oklahoma, and Ben Lindsey, 
Colorado. 

Organization of the party in the various states 
differs according to local conditions and exigen¬ 
cies. In some states, such as Pennsylvania, it 
has been found necessary to make the organiza¬ 
tion under another name than that adopted na¬ 
tionally. 

The general plan is to build up from the pre¬ 
cinct to the county and the Congressional district, 
with a State Central Committee as the highest 
governing body within the state. 

The principle to which endeavor is made to 
give effect is the complete democratization of the 
party, so that the masses of the voters may have 
full control. The recall has been incorporated in 
many of the organizations. For example a dis- 
308 



PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATION 


trict committee provides that any member may 
be recalled by due process on petition of a suffi¬ 
cient number of the members of the party in the 
electoral division which he represents. This 
principle may be carried through the organiza¬ 
tion. 

Doubtless experience will lead to a modifica¬ 
tion of existing plans, and in time a system of or¬ 
ganization will be devised that may apply m 
every state, giving harmony and cohesion to the 
party. 

A practical problem that is still under consid¬ 
eration is the financing of the party. It is re¬ 
cognized as of the utmost importance that the 
finances should be as democratic as the member¬ 
ship and principles. The peril of large contribu¬ 
tions from a few individuals is to be avoided, but 
there is much to be done in the work of training 
the membership to this new conception of party 
obligation before the problem will be solved. A 
system of dues has been suggested, and ultimate¬ 
ly this may be adopted; but for the present the 
party depends upon the voluntary gifts of its ad¬ 
herents. Obviously it cannot expect and should 
not seek support from corporations or from sour- 
309 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


ces that have proved demoralizing in the older 
parties. 

The Progressive Service, which forms the edu¬ 
cational arm of the movement, originated with a 
suggestion made by Miss Frances A. Kellor, 
whose deep interest in the social value of the 
party led her to conceive this plan for making it 
a permanent source of helpfulness in the cause 
of social and industrial justice. 

It was approved by the National Committee 
and the Executive Committee, and its organiza¬ 
tion was begun immediately after the 1912 elec¬ 
tion. 

Miss Frances A. Kellor was appointed Chief, 
and has associated with her a general committee 
consisting of Samuel McCune Lindsay, William 
Draper Lewis, Jane Addams, Gifford Pinchot, 
George L. Record and Charles S. Bird. 

Two important sub-committees have charge of 
education and legislative reference respectively. 

The Education Committee is presided over by 
Samuel McCune Lindsay, and concerns itself 
with literature, speakers and lecturers, social cen¬ 
ters and public educational problems. 

The Legislative Reference Committee is pre- 
310 


PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATION 


sided over by William Draper Lewis, and has for 
its special work the assembling and preparation 
of data for the drafting of bills, the drafting of 
legislative programmes, the fixing of minimum 
standards in w T ages, hours and conditions of la¬ 
bor, and such other matters as chiefly concern the 
work of giving statutory effect to the principles 
and policies of the party. 

In addition to these two committees there are 
four original departments, to which additions are 
being made from time to time as occasion de¬ 
mands. These departments are Social and In¬ 
dustrial Justice, of which Jane Addams is direc¬ 
tor; Conservation, including natural resources, 
country life, health and productive efficiency, di¬ 
rected by Gifford Pinchot; Popular Govern¬ 
ment, directed by George L. Record, and Cost 
of Living and Corporation Control, directed by 
Charles S. Bird. 

The Progressive Service is not a mere paper 
organization. It has demonstrated a remarkable 
activity, and has proved of immense value to the 
movement. Through it the interest of many of 
the ablest men and women in the country has 
been retained in the work of the party, and their 
311 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


invaluable advice and cooperation have been 
made available. 

Permanent offices are maintained in New 
York, and a busy staff is constantly at work. 

So numerous and urgent were the demands 
made upon it for assistance in promoting state 
organization and education that two new de¬ 
partments had to be added to the original four. 
One of these is devoted to State Service Organi¬ 
zation and the other to Conferences. 

The conference is a distinct phase of the Pro¬ 
gressive movement. It is an open meeting of 
Progressives assembled from a state or from sev¬ 
eral states to discuss the problems and policies of 
their party. These conferences are largely edu¬ 
cational. They are concerned with promoting 
the principles rather than the office opportunities 
of the party. 

One of the difficulties experienced in the car ¬ 
rying on of the Service work has been that of ob¬ 
taining men and women equipped for its peculiar 
demands. Only those who are trained in an un¬ 
derstanding of social and industrial questions, 
and who possess the viewpoint of the movement 
are fitted for its work. Plans have been made to 
312 


PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATION 


encourage the education and training of work¬ 
ers, and this promises to be a most useful phase 
of the movement. It is the beginning of a corps 
of efficient political leaders, trained, not in the 
practical politics of the old parties, but in the 
principles and programme of the new party; 
seeking, not office, but the triumph of right and 
justice and the people. 

An interesting example of the manner in which 
the Service is adopting and adapting every meth¬ 
od that gives promise of reaching the people is 
found in its plan for using the moving picture 
theatres as Progressive schools. Under a 
committee composed of leading dramatists, ac¬ 
tors and magazine writers, picture plays are be¬ 
ing prepared that will illustrate the need for the 
social and industrial reforms proposed by the 
party. It is believed these plays will have suffi¬ 
cient dramatic interest to be welcomed by the va • 
rious concerns engaged in the making of films for 
the picture theatres of the country. 

But one of the most pressing demands upon 
the Service is the organization of the states upon 
similar lines of work. The effort is being made 
to systematize and coordinate all service work. 

313 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


The general plan suggested, is that each state 
shall have a Progressive Service Committee, or¬ 
ganized under the auspices of the State Central 
Committee and with bureaus on education and 
legislation. These main sub-committees, or bu¬ 
reaus, shall name other committees to supervise 
various departments of the work as suggested by 
the planks in the national platform. 

In each Congressional district it is proposed 
that there shall be Progressive Service Clubs or 
Leagues, composed of both men and women. 
These organizations shall devote themselves to 
cultivating Progressive sentiment by education 
and propaganda and by following, with modifi¬ 
cations suited to local needs, the general plan of 
work adopted in the national and state service. 
When ten such clubs have been formed in a state 
they may be organized into a state league. None 
of these organizations is to endorse candidates 
for nomination before the primary. Their work 
is not that of promoting candidacies, but of 
furthering the principles of the movement. 

The National Progressive Service contemp¬ 
lates putting organizers in every state, and main¬ 
taining a staff of supervisors whose duty it shall 
314 


PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATION 

be to visit the various clubs and encourage, stim¬ 
ulate and advise them in their work. 

A publishing department has been established 
through which it is hoped to create a literature of 
the movement. In this age no movement that 
seeks permanence can ignore the printing press 
as a means of propaganda. It must have its own 
periodicals, its pamphlets and its books. There is 
an abundance of scholarship and literary talent 
enlisted in the Progressive party, and it should 
prove fecund in the production of interesting and 
enlightening contributions to the discussion of 
modern questions. 

It will be seen that the Progressive party be¬ 
lieves in constant activity and ceaseless cam¬ 
paigning. It has abandoned the old plan of con¬ 
fining political activity and appeal to election 
years, and to but a few months at a time. With 
it a new campaign begins as soon as the old one 
ends. The post-election conference of the party 
in Chicago, in December 1912, was a departure 
from all precedent. It marked the change in 
policy. 

By its programme of educational work com¬ 
bined with organization for electoral purposes 
315 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


the Progressive party is establishing itself on a 
foundation that is deep and abiding. Apart whol¬ 
ly from what success it may achieve in obtaining 
representation in the legislative and administra¬ 
tive bodies of the country, the Progressive party 
must prove a splendid influence for promoting 
legislation in the interests of popular government 
and human welfare. There are evidences that 
this influence has been felt already. Unquestion¬ 
ably the activity displayed by many state legisla - 
tures in discussing and enacting Progressive 
measures is due to the quickening of the public 
conscience through the party’s propaganda. 
Even the national administration and Congress 
manifest a tendency to give larger place to popu* 
lar issues, and both Democratic and Republican 
programmes are being modified and fashioned in 
accord with the new temper of the people to 
which the Progressive party gave the first organ ■ 
ized expression. 

The Progressive movement, therefore, is, in 
truth, broader and more comprehensive than the 
Progressive party. It is to be found wherever 
men and women are concerned about the rights 
of the people and the welfare of those who toil. 

316 


PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATION 


Whether this sentiment, now widely diffused, 
will eventually crystallize or concentrate in one 
political organization, of which the new party is 
logically the nucleus, remains to be demonstrated 
by the events of the future. It seems probable 
that it will. 

For the present the radical element con trolls 
in the affairs of government. The Democratic 
party is in the hands of progressive leadership. 
Its policy is being driven into new channels by 
the sentiment that such men as Roosevelt and 
Beveridge and Johnson developed and organized. 
Conservatism is suffering a temporary relapse. 
That it will remain without effective political ex- 
pression is not to be supposed. It will presently 
recover itself, and seek to regain its lost power. 
The effect of such recovery will be to force a 
sharper definition of cleavage along the new lines, 
and the Progressive party, because of its organi¬ 
zation, because of its preparatory educational 
work, will be in the strategic position to bear the 
brunt of the battle against the conservative resur¬ 
gence. 

Naturally all “forward-looking men,” to bor¬ 
row a phrase from President Wilson, will rally 
to its standard. 


317 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


But, whatever the future may hold for pres¬ 
ent political organizations, one thing is assured— 
a new dynamic has been created in the thought 
and life of the people, a dynamic that has wedded 
the throbbing power of heart and brain to the 
work of establishing that righteousness in busi¬ 
ness and government which “exalteth the Na¬ 
tion.” There can be no going back. A peaceful 
revolution has been achieved. Henceforth the 
rights of man must take prior place to the rights 
of property, and with the reassertion of human 
welfare and freedom as the aim of government 
true democracy will come into its own. 


318 




v->* 


AND THEN CAME JEAN 

By ROBERT ALEXANDER WASON 

Author of “ Happy Hawkins," “ Friar Tuck," etc. 


The scene of Mr. Wason’s new novel is a town 
in Indiana which the author calls Benlo, “ a one- 
railroad town of from 2,500 to 5,000 inhabitants, 
according to the temperament, civic pride and 
morality of the citizen giving the testimony.” 
“ The Civil War and the tariff,” says the author, 
“ are the subjects Benlo feels itself best qualified 
to discuss, and the introduction of topics unrelated 
to these two is a breach of etiquette.” 

To Benlo, in the serene confidence of his untried 
youth, returns Henry Hamilton Trotwood, com¬ 
monly known as Henry Ham. In tracing Henry’s 
development, Mr. Wason gives us the history of a 
young American in the interesting process of “finding 
himself.” Every one familiar with the quality of 
Mr. Wason’s humor will know the delight in store 
for the reader. Henry comes in contact with all 
the personalities typical of the average American 
town, and a number of characters who are unique 
and worthy of a high place in the already large 
gallery of Mr. Wason’s people. Perhaps the most 
diverting of all is Grandma Trotwood, aged eighty- 
six, the pal and boon companion of Henry. 

As the story grows in interest, Henry falls in 
love — with Jean. It is love at first sight, for when 
Jean peers at him from the evergreens her gypsy 
nature calls to his and makes him the eager wooer. 
It is not too much to say that seldom in fiction has 
there been told a love story so pure and fresh and 
so wholly delightful. For strength and beauty one 
must needs, perhaps, go, for its equal, to the idyllic 
passages in George Meredith’s “The Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel.” 

Frontispiece. $1.35 net; by mail , $1.50 


SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY, Publishers 
BOSTON 






William Carleton’s Great Books 


ONE WAY OUT 

In this remarkable narrative a man tells how at thirty- 
eight he lost his position in the office of a big corporation; 
how he learned that the special training of his own office was 
of no value in getting him a position in any other office; how 
he was already “ too old ” to get such a position as he had 
found easily enough at eighteen; how he and his wife and 
boy, in their trim little suburban home, were actually con¬ 
fronted with the fundamental problem of how to exist; how 
he met and solved that problem in a way unexpected and 
dramatic, though to him and his wonderful wife, Ruth, ob¬ 
vious and natural, by “ emigrating ” to America; and how in 
all their struggle they found their lives enriched and inspired 
by the old adventurous pioneer spirit of their forefathers. 
Few books have had so vital a place in the lives of thinking 
men and women. 

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York Times. 

“A very genuine inspiration.”— Outlook. 

“ A really notable brief for democracy that everybody 
ought to read.”— Nation. 

“ Of extreme interest because of its detailed study of actual 
conditions and of value for its suggestiveness.” — A. L. A. 
Booklist. 

$1.20 net; by mail, $1.35 


NEW LIVES FOR OLD 

“ The author of ‘ One Way Out * buys a farm and en¬ 
counters in the New England country village conditions 
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original methods and enthusiasm awaken the dead village, 
and through cooperation, friendly rivalry and expert advice 
the land which had been only furnishing a miserable exist¬ 
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and steady income.” — A. L. A. Booklist. 

“ In ‘ New Lives For Old,’ says Mr. Bert Ball, Sec¬ 
retary of the Crop Improvement Committee of the National 
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which we are working to organize in every county in the 
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$1.20 net; by mail, $1.35 


SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY, Publishers 
BOSTON 







THE SURAKARTA 

By Edwin Balmer and William MacHarg 


A crisp and alluring story of an unexpected and 
tender love coming to its own in the midst of the 
baffling mystery which centers around the where¬ 
abouts of the famous emerald known as the Sura¬ 
karta, the property of a native prince of Java whose 
emissaries have brought it to America as a gift to 
a young Chicago heiress. It possesses all the dash 
of Mr. Baimer’s “ Waylaid by Wireless,” all the 
originality of “ The Achievements of Luther Trant ” 
which Mr. Balmer and Mr. MacHarg wrote in col¬ 
laboration, all the brilliancy which characterizes 
both books, with the added sureness, the greater 
complexity, that come to the past master in the 
art of story-telling. 

The first requisite of a novel of mystery is the 
keeping of the secret until the time comes to 
divulge it; the second, that the explanation shall 
be waterproof, that it shall withstand every fair 
test; the third, that the reader’s curiosity shall be 
stimulated until it is satisfied. All three demands 
are met fairly and squarely by “ The Surakarta,” 
and to them is added a pervading originality, an 
abstention from time-worn devices and ready-made 
types. 

The action all takes place in Chicago, most of it 
in a great modern hotel and in an office-building. 
The story offers vigorous entertainment of a most 
enjoyable kind. 

Illustrated by Lester Ralph. $1.12 net; by mail, 
$1.40 


SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY, Publishers 
BOSTON 




The Christmas Bishop 

By WINIFRED KIRKLAND 


“The Christmas Bishop” is the story of a 
great-hearted Episcopal bishop who passes a 
certain Christmas of his life in what seem to 
him three hopeless attempts to make things go 
right for the three human beings with whom in 
succession his day is chiefly passed. How his 
influence made itself felt in reality, in contrast 
to his own ignorance of its value, is the burden 
of the story. 

It is a story told with the sympathy that 
comes from perfect understanding. Through 
the eyes of the Bishop we see life and its mean¬ 
ing. We see the contrast between youth and 
age,—youth when all things are distinct, age 
when poetry and prose, God and man, are all 
interwoven. And “Christmas Day sometimes 
throws a light on other days and years.” 

It is seldom that spiritual teaching, a poet¬ 
ical story, a fine, noble personality, and tender 
pathos that is yet too full of faith for sadness, 
are all brought together in one book. 

Small 12 mo. Cloth. Illustrated by Louise G. Mor= 
rison. $1.00 net; by mail $1.10. 


SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY, Publishers, 
BOSTON 





Toya the Unlike 

BY 

ELEANOR MERCEIN KELLY 


This is the story of Toya, daughter of a Japanese 
mother and an American father. The story opens 
in Japan, and we see Toya with her wide smile of 
endurance and bewilderment journeying to America 
with Harry Lansing, her dead father’s dearest friend, 
who had promised to take the little girl to her rich 
old grandfather in New York. Complications arise 
and the years pass, and it is Toya, the young lady, 
unusual and undecipherable, whose fortunes we 
follow as the story gathers headway. 

Not the least interesting is the contrast depicted 
between things Japanese, old and new, and the 
“New York idea.” Through it all we see Toya 
moving in her individual way, unexpectedly Japan¬ 
ese and even more unexpectedly American. 

“ She is a thoroughly nice, if a somewhat astonishing young 
person to know, and a great many people will enjoy her 
simplicity, her quaint ways and her capable little person¬ 
ality.”— Chicago Tribune. 

“ A romance as fragrant and pretty as a Japanese cherry 
grove in bloom.” — Philadelphia Press. 

“ A delightful and unusual story, with a quaint and lovable 
heroine. It will be welcomed.” — San Francisco Chronicle. 

“ Appearing at a time when the question of the Oriental 
in our social scheme is before the public for discussion, this 
tale has a lively interest.” — Chicago Evening Post. 


SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY, Publishers 
BOSTON 





H 262 83 





























NGV 3 1913 


THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 


Its Principles and Its Programme 

BY 

S. J. Duncan-Clark 

With an Introduction 
BY 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT 























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